James Call
A challenge to a proposed regulatory structure for the state’s medicinal marijuana law has been dismissed. Judge Elizabeth W. McArthur ruled Thursday the attorneys for a 4-year-old Jacksonville girl failed to prove their client is a “qualified patient” under the Compassionate Medicinal Cannabis Act of 2014 and therefore lacks standing as an affected party to block the proposed rule.
The ruling was handed down in a case filed on behalf of a Daliah Barnhardt, and the details can be found here story here.
In court documents the attorneys had stated the petitioner “plans to register” as a patient on the state’s approved list of Charlotte’s Web patients. McArthur wrote that “appears contrary to the law” which requires a physician to register a patient on a state approved list to use a low-THC strain of marijuana as medicine.
The April 14 hearing in the Barndhardt case was cancelled. McArthur is leaving the door slightly ajar for an appeal. If the attorneys amend the petition in a “timely” fashion and “cure the deficiencies” then a final hearing, if necessary, will be re-scheduled.
Two other challenges to the proposed rule remain but legal experts say they face similar lack of standing obstacles. The Department of Health has been struggling since this past summer to put in place rules to award licenses to cultivate marijuana and dispense medicinal oil processed from the plant.
