The Colorado Supreme Court unanimously agreed in a decision released Monday that a person who is sentenced to probation can use medical marijuana unless there’s evidence that it would counter the goals of a sentence.

The state’s highest court “disapproved” of the decision by a district court to uphold an El Paso County judge’s decision prohibiting Alysha Walton from using medical marijuana while on probation. It said the decision violated Walton’s rights guaranteed under Colorado’s Constitution.

Walton’s sentence stemmed from an August 2016 DUI charge that involved alcohol for which she pleaded guilty. The Supreme Court did not, however, reverse the decision because Walton had already completed her deferred sentence and year of unsupervised probation on May 24, 2018. Still, the high court’s ruling will set a precedent for others in similar situations.

El Paso County Judge Karla Hansen denied Walton’s use of medical marijuana during a hearing because Walton failed to bring a medical professional to testify about her need to use it, though she provided documentation authorizing its use.

“We conclude that the statute’s plain language unambiguously creates a presumption that a defendant may use authorized medical marijuana while serving a term of probation,” the Supreme Court wrote in its decision.

The state statute allows for medical marijuana use and places the burden on the prosecution to prove why a person shouldn’t be allowed to use it, but the judge in Walton’s case required the opposite, according to the decision. The Supreme Court justices said the judge’s standing policy to require live testimony from a doctor for such use violates state law.

Deputy State Public Defender Cayce Duncan said previously that the case demonstrates the overconditioning of people who are on probation.

In a statement Monday, she said her office is “glad that the court ruled on this case so that other citizens in El Paso County and across Colorado are not subject to the unlawful probation conditions imposed by the county court judge in this case.”

Despite the decision no longer applying to Walton, the justices wrote that the issue about using medical marijuana during probation would come up again for defendants in El Paso County and even in other parts of the state, so they decided to weigh in. Attorneys across the state have said the issue comes up regularly with defendants and the decisions often are highly subjective, depending on the judge and the county.

“It’s been inconsistent and rather overwhelming ever since the law changed to allow it,” Denver attorney Jay Tiftickjian previously told The Denver Post.

Although the decision would apply statewide, it is still narrow, said Denver Attorney Christopher Jackson who specializes in appeals, elections and public law.

Jackson notes that although the court ruled in Walton’s favor, it didn’t rule on whether marijuana possession is protected under the state constitution.

“This is noteworthy in light of Chief Justice (Nathan) Coats’s blistering dissent in People v. McKnight, where he strongly disapproved of the suggestion that marijuana possession is protected by the state constitution,” Jackson wrote on Twitter. “The Court’s narrower ruling garnered unanimous support, meaning CJ Coats signed onto it.”

1/ Colorado Supreme Court says there's a presumption that people on probation may use medical marijuana. A couple of thoughts. https://t.co/Qz2HbUYGDJ #coappeals #colaw — Christopher Jackson (@COAppeals) November 18, 2019

That means medical marijuana use could come up again in a variety of contexts before the state’s highest court, Jackson said in an interview.