Florida Governor Rick Scott filed a last hour appeal Friday afternoon that stopped a judge’s ruling that many feared might throw the state’s medical cannabis industry into chaos.
“The Governor has directed the Department of Health to appeal this ruling after hearing from the Legislature, which is responsible for creating laws, not the judiciary,” according to Scott spokesman John Tupps.
The appeal stops a ruling from a Tallahassee area judge who ruled the state’s medical marijuana law unconstitutional because it failed to carry out a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana, and ordered the state to start opening up the licensing process by 5 p.m. Friday.
The judge took issue with several aspects of the medical marijuana law approved by lawmakers after 70 percent of voters approved medical marijuana in 2016
“It definitely will create confusion,” says Brady Cobb, CEO of Scythian Biosciences which is planning two dispensaries in Palm Beach County.
Cobb says this appeal will now allow time for lawmakers to go back and make the state’s medical marijuana program better.
“As a CEO of a publicly traded company that’s coming into Florida and also a lawyer we need certainty.”
