State Appealing Ruling in Marijuana Lawsuit
April 12th, 2018 by Jake Stofan
The state wasted no time appealing a ruling by a Leon County judge to allow a Tampa night club owner to grow his own medical marijuana.
The ruling could impact a myriad of other cases seeking to expand the ways patients can take their medicine.
Redner sued the state, so he could grow his own medical marijuana to juice for a treatment prescribed by his doctor.
“It’s really about a patient saying, ‘I’m sick. I can’t get what I want and I want to be able to choose how I get it and the constitution allows me that right’,” said Jeff Sharkey, head of the Medical Marijuana Business Association.
A Leon County Judge ruled in favor of Redner, but the state has appealed the decision in the First District Court of Appeals, effectively putting the ruling on hold.
The current law prohibits smoking and the sale of whole flower marijuana.
The judge’s ruling says that exclusion was an overreach by lawmakers on the constitutional amendment passed by 71% of voters.
“This seems to answer the question of whether or not I can smoke whole flower. That means these MMTC’s could potentially sell that,” said Sharkey.
Trulieve is one of two growers currently suing the state to allow the sale of whole flower products.
Advocates say using the whole flower has health benefits vaping and edibles can’t provide.
“Even if you do the best job you can extracting the cannabinoids into an oil or an extract you’re still leaving parts and pieces behind,” said Jodi James with the Florida Cannabis Action Network.
The lawsuits filed by growers along with the NoSmoke is a Joke lawsuit filed by John Morgan to allow smoking may stand a better chance of succeeding if Redner’s ruling stands.
Which ever way the appellate court goes it’s likely to be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Trulieve has also filed suit against the state against a provision in the law that limits growers to owning only 25 dispensing locations.
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