"There is a bona fide, actual, present practical need for the declaration," the judge wrote. | AP Photo Judge strikes down ban on smoking medical marijuana

TALLAHASSEE — A Leon County Circuit Court judge on Friday ruled that more than 100,000 medical marijuana users in Florida should be able to smoke their cannabis medicine, arguing that the ban written into law by the Legislature is unconstitutional.

The ruling by Judge Karen Gievers could allow physicians to order patients authorized to use medical cannabis to inhale it.


"There is a bona fide, actual, present practical need for the declaration," Gievers wrote.

However, the Florida Department of Health is expected ask the First District Court of Appeal to review the case. The request would spur a temporary delay in the impact of the ruling until the appellate court issues a final order.

Gievers' ruling came following a trial last week over a lawsuit brought against the state that claimed a ban on smoking medical cannabis that was written into statute by the Legislature violated the state Constitution.

The May 16 trial included testimony from two medical cannabis users listed as plaintiffs in the case. One plaintiff was Manatee County resident Catherine Jordan, who said medical cannabis smoke helped her control complications with swallowing brought on by Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The other plaintiff was Levy County resident Diana Dodson, who said smoking was the only effective treatment to manage symptoms brought on by AIDS.

High-profile Orlando lawyer John Morgan, who bankrolled the medical marijuana constitutional amendment, filed the suit in July as chairman of the group, People United for Medical Marijuana. Former state House Speaker Jon Mills argued the case. He and Morgan helped author a constitutional amendment to expand medical marijuana use that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November 2016.

Another author of the amendment was Ben Pollara, who led the campaign that pushed for its successful passage. He said the ruling will provide sick people with more options to get well.

"This is a huge victory for sick and suffering Floridians, who can now consume their medicine however they choose," Pollara told POLITICO. "And it's a victory to voters, whose clear will had been thwarted by the Legislature.

"No smoke is a joke, and today the court agreed," Pollara said.

With support from voters, the Legislature expanded the state’s medical marijuana program, which included a ban on smoking the drug. Mills had argued the intent of the amendment was to have no restrictions on ways people could ingest it.

However, lawyers from the office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the ballot language put before voters and a document Mills and Morgan wrote to clarify its intent did not call for medical marijuana to be smoked. The Legislature added the smoking ban out of concern for public health.