Also, the state has not banned any other industry it has determined to be legitimate from receiving compensation for their goods and services, Reynolds ruled.

Reynolds ordered other provisions of the law blocked, including a ban on advertising, allowing warrantless searches of medical marijuana premises and investigating doctors who recommend pot to more than 25 patients a year. The state appealed only the injunction against the sales ban.

Molloy argued that Reynolds used the wrong standard of review in determining that fundamental rights were involved in the marijuana sales ban. Molloy asked the justices to send the case back to Reynolds with instructions to apply a lower standard in reviewing whether the ban should take effect.

Goetz said the justices should rule against the sales ban. Other problems with the law will still need to be decided, but the justices' ruling against the ban "would be a fundamental strike at the heart of the statute," Goetz said after the hearing.

Without commercial providers, patients would have to grow their own marijuana or have a relative or friend grow it for them. Growing their own marijuana would be difficult for most patients and their relatives, Goetz said.