Florida Judge Likely to Lift Ban on Smoking Marijuana

Circuit Judge Karen Gievers declared the state’s ban on smokeable marijuana unconstitutional. An automatic stay placed on her ruling could be lifted in the near future. Lifting the ban forces the state to determine specific rules – which have been delayed for nearly two years.

To give the Department of Health some time to include smokeable marijuana as an accepted form, she may delay her stay for a little while, Tampa Bay Times reports. Despite the state not having rules within the allotted time as required when voters approved medical marijuana, the judge is attempting to be courteous to the state. On May 25, her ruling came down that banning smokeable medical marijuana was “overreaching”.

She also said the ban was a clear violation of the approved 2016 constitutional amendment to approve medical marijuana.

The stay was put in place when the Department of Health and Governor Scott filed an immediate appeal of the ruling. A long argument regarding the legislature’s ban of smoking marijuana took place. Those opposed to lifting the ban argued that rules aren’t in place that allow the distribution or use of smokeable marijuana.

Karen Boden, senior assistant attorney general, said, “Nobody at this time can go to a medical marijuana treatment center and obtain smokeable marijuana…There is no lawful medical marijuana that can be smoked.”

Those for the smoking ban say that allowing it would be like a “backdoor attempt” toward permitting recreational marijuana use.

Patients testified that smoking their medical marijuana is the only method that works well enough for them – as is the case with many, many more medical marijuana patients.

Judge Gievers has not given a date as to when she will make a decision on the stay as of yet.