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UPDATE

Judge Strikes Down Florida Ban

On Smokable Medical Marijuana

The Florida ban preventing medical medical marijuana case that court will be
marijuana patients from smoking hearing after Judge Gievers ruled in April
cannabis was snuffed out. that a Tampa man, Joe Redner, is entitled
On May 25, Leon County Circuit under state law to possess, grow and use
Court Judge Karen Gievers ruled that the medical marijuana for juicing purposes.
state's ban on smokable cannabis violates Redner was prescribed juicing treatments
the state constitution. from his physician in order to prevent his
In her 22-page ruling, Judge Gievers stage 4 lung cancer, now in remission,
wrote, “Qualifying patients have the from recurring.
right to use the form of medical marijua- In related cannabis news, businesses
na for treatment of their debilitating looking to enter Florida’s pot industry
medical conditions as recommended by recently warned state health officials at a
their certified physicians, including the hearing about the many flaws a proposed
use of smokable marijuana in private rule increasing the number of medical
places.” marijuana operators.
She added that the state law banning The proposed rule was released last
medical marijuana from being smoked is month and set in motion the application
“invalid and unenforceable,” and said process for four highly sought-after med-
that it was in conflict with the constitu- ical marijuana licenses. The state has
tional amendment voters approved in already issued licenses to 13 operators
2016 that lets qualified patients legally but has yet to begin accepting applica-
use cannabis. tions for the four new licenses. The law
According to a statement by the requires one of the new licenses to be
Florida's Department of Health, it has given to an African-American farmer
already appealed the ruling which who was involved in federal litigation
imposes an automatic stay. David about discriminatory lending practices.
Galetta, a spokesperson for the depart- The law also requires state health offi-
ment, said in a statement to the cials to give preference for up to two
Associated Press that this ruling “goes licenses to applicants who “own one or
against what the legislature outlined more facilities that are, or were, used for
when they wrote and approved the law to the canning, concentrating, or otherwise
implement the constitutional amend- processing of citrus fruit or citrus
ment that was approved.” molasses and will use or convert the
Medical marijuana advocates across facility or facilities for the processing of
the state praised the ruling as a victory marijuana.”
for Floridian patients. The citrus preference cited is now one
Ben Pollara, head of the nonprofit of several marijuana-related court chal-
medical marijuana advocacy group lenges pending. During the public testi-
Florida for Care, called the ruling a big mony on May 24, most of the complaints
victory for patients and voters. were about this citrus-related language in
In a tweet posted just after the ruling, the proposed rule. Attorney Seann
the Medical Marijuana Business Frazier said the proposed regulation sub-
Association of Florida called it “an stituted the word “property” for “facili-
important ruling to allow physicians and ties,” which adds vagueness and could
their patients to decide the best way to possibly broaden the language in the
administer medicine to alleviate their statute which is something the agency is
medical condition symptoms in the pri- not allowed to do.
vacy of their own homes.” In addition, the proposed rule gives
In 2016, Florida voters approved a the two highest-scoring applicants eligi-
constitutional amendment to allow use ble for the citrus preference an extra 35
of medical marijuana as a treatment for points, in addition to a total of 1,150 pos-
patients with debilitating medical condi- sible points available to all applicants.
tions, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, post- Some of the applicants expressed a desire
traumatic stress disorder, Parkinson’s dis- to give more weight to the citrus prefer-
ease, ALS and multiple sclerosis. ence.
The only mention of smoking in the Other attendees at the hearing voiced
legislation is that the state legislature and their displeasure about the page limits
local governments could restrict it in imposed in the proposed rule which
public places. But in June 2017, the leg- could prevent applicants from providing
islature passed enacting laws which information, such as how many dispen-
banned the sale of smoking products, cit- saries they plan to open.
ing a health risk. The law stated that After the hearing, the public has a
patients could use cannabis through vap- week to submit comments on the pro-
ing and also in food, oils, sprays and posed rule and 10 days to file administra-
tinctures. tive challenges. If there are no chal-
But the legal battle will continue. The lenges, the Office of Medical Marijuana
next step is Florida 1st District Court of Use could begin accepting applications
Appeal in Tallahassee. This is the second by mid-July.

34 June 2018 southfloridahospitalnews.com South Florida Hospital News