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No Smoke is a Joke Heads to Courtroom

May 15th, 2018 by Mike Vasilinda

A Bradenton woman who says her suffering from ALS disease is decreased because of smokable medical marijuana gets her day in court tomorrow. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, she and other plaintiffs are challenging the states ban on smokable medicine.

As lawmaker debated the rules for medical marijuana, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri was adamant.

“We don’t think there should be smokable marijuana” Gualtieri told lawmakers in January 2017.

 

Fast forward five months, and John Morgan, the man who bankrolled the amendment, filed his no smoke is a joke law suit. He argues people knew what they wanted.

 

“The vast majority, if not one hundred percent knew that smoke was included” Morgan told reporters.

The Constitutional amendment mentions smoking just once. It says smoking can’t be in public. In a January hearing, advocates argued that means it can be smoked in private.

Jon Mills is the Amendment Two Author. “There’s no question that  the definition of marijuana in this constitutional provision includes smokable marijuana.”

The state says otherwise. Rebecca Nordby was the attorney for the Department of Health. 

“There is no express requirement that smoking medical marijuana has to be allowed.”

 

Plaintiff Cathy Jordan and her husband Robert say that smoking marijuana has kept her ALS at bay for more than twenty years.”, “Noticeable difference” Robert told uswhen it cae to vaping or edibles.

Jeff Sharkey of the Medical Marijuana Business Association says it will likely come down to what doctors recommend.

“If the amendment didn’t say it was prohibited, then implicitly, it’s allowed.”

The same judge in this case recently ruled that a Tampa man could grow his own marijuana based on a doctor’s recommendation. The state opposed that, just as it opposes this.

And no matter how the judge rules, the loser is likely to appeal.

 

 

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