Judge Overseeing Florida Medical Marijuana Program Could Make Big Changes

Two years after Florida approved medical marijuana, legislative language is holding up the full implementation. The judge now overseeing the case, Judge John Van Laningham, says that the previous judge made a mess of the regulations. The new ruling could make the program an even bigger mess.

Five licenses were made available by the Florida legislature to cultivate marijuana and marijuana oil, according to Tallahassee Democrat.  Three dispensaries have been opened, selling marijuana oil to qualifying patients with debilitating illnesses like epilepsy. Judge Van Laningham hinted that the licensing process may reopen.

Judge Van Laningham thinks that the Department of Health has failed to “apply the law and rules equitably to all applicants.” This judge oversees the 11 counties in the southwestern portion of Florida. Some applicants, like grower Anthony Ardizzone, believe that the Department of Health gave some applicants preferential treatment.

Ardizzone said, “He confirms that the rules were applied inequitably to applicants. All I’m looking for is a fair shake. He said what I’ve been arguing all along, we were not treated equally.”

Ardizzone has a case pending against the Department of Health in Leon County. The Department of Health filed a motion for Ardizzone’s case to be dismissed stating that he missed the cut-off date to challenge the decision to not grant a license to Ardizzone’s company Ed Miller and Sons. The argument on Ardizzone’s side is that the Department of Health was not “forthcoming with information.”

Ardizzone said, “We didn’t know until we started digging. Then we found they allowed applicants to change their applications after the deadline. They accepted surety bond payments after the deadline. Why did they strictly apply the rules only to me?”

Judge Van Laningham has heavily criticized the Department of Health for implementing the program rules and laws their own way. The Department of Health is supposed to use a scoring protocol, but instead “ranked” applicants instead.

October 17 is the deadline for the Department of Health to resolve the issues raised by Judge Van Laningham.