A Michigan woman with a rare form of cancer is taking state officials to federal court after she recently lost access to the medical marijuana oil she uses to treat her severe pain as a result of state regulatory action.

Lawyers for Sherry Hoover, a 57-year-old retired nurse from Rochester, filed a case in the U.S. Eastern District Court Wednesday, June 5, against the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

Department officials declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Hoover uses medical marijuana -- specifically Rick Simpson Oil -- to help her through her experimental treatments for the rare form of leukemia she has been battling since 2011.

However, Hoover hasn’t been able to get the medical oil she needs from her local provisioning center -- the Curing Corner in River Rouge -- for the past three weeks. It’s sent her body into a tailspin, she said.

“My whole system feels like my bones are being twisted,” Hoover said during a press conference Wednesday in Royal Oak. “If I get back on the medication, it takes all that away. I don’t want to go back to the Norco; the fentanyl.”

Hoover’s lawyer Michelle Donovan argues that’s due to a Medical Marihuana Licensing Board resolution that ended the direct sale of caregiver marijuana to provisioning centers. The resolution took effect in May as a result of a judge’s order.

Donovan said the state has violated Hoover’s due process rights, and is seeking a temporary restraining order on that resolution to temporarily reintroduce caregiver marijuana back into the regulated market until the end of the year.

The press conference included banners calling on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to help Hoover, though Whitmer was not named in the lawsuit. Whitmer has the executive authority to override the state agency regulations in question, and she used it early in her term in order to push LARA to expand patient access to medical marijuana. She later issued an executive order to abolish the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board.

Caregiver marijuana has accounted for 93 percent of all of the flower sold in the first six months of the regulated medical market, according to data obtained by MLive. Caregivers aren’t legally allowed to sell to provisioning centers, but state officials have repeatedly promised to not take disciplinary action against the businesses that buy their products.

Some provisioning centers, like the Curing Corner, are claiming that the licensed growers that they now have to source all of their inventory from aren’t yet producing the specialized oils that medical marijuana patients like Hoover need. Amy McKinnon-Glun, manager of the Curing Corner, said Wednesday she has found one licensed supplier of Rick Simpson Oil -- but the product has been undergoing lab testing for several weeks and hasn’t filled her order yet.

The rollout of regulations on Michigan’s medical marijuana market has been plagued by lawsuits, as attempts to enforce licensing deadlines have been successfully challenged in court.

Recently tied up in those lawsuits has been the ability of caregivers to continue to supplement the market.

The wholesale of caregiver marijuana to licensed shops was supposed to end April 1. That date was also supposed to mark a deadline for about 50 unlicensed medical marijuana shops to shut their doors -- but a flurry of lawsuits prompted Court of Claims Judge Stephen Borrello to issue a temporary restraining order In late March.

Borrello issued a final ruling April 30, which barred the state from imposing any new licensing deadline and meant the end of the direct sale of caregiver marijuana to licensed shops.

Regulators are allowing caregivers to sell their marijuana to licensed growers and processors, who must test it before selling it to shops. Critics say this practice isn’t likely to happen, as the black market may pose a more lucrative opportunity.

-- Amy Biolchini is the marijuana beat reporter for MLive. Contact her with questions, tips or comments at abiolch1@mlive.com. Read more from MLive about medical and recreational marijuana.