Florida Judge Rules In Favor Of Online Cannabis Ordering

By Jelena Martinovic

As of Monday, medical patients in Florida can resume purchasing cannabis products online from licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

The decision from Judge Suzanne Van Wyk comes months after Florida’s Department of Health announced it would fine any licensed cannabis dispensary that used third-party services to process orders.

“Contracting with Leafly.com, or any other third-party website, for services directly related to dispensing is a violation,” wrote Courtney Coppola, former Health Dept. chief of staff in a Feb. 2021 memo.

Shortly after the state’s Department of Health threatened a $500,000 fine, Florida-based medical marijuana operators started to sever the ties with third-party online companies, wrote High Times.

Prior to the February memo, Leafly worked with 277 stores in the Sunshine State, assisting in the processing of the orders of more than half a million patients.

Judge Van Wyk’s new ruling comes after the company’s legal team argued that Leafly does not take part in the dispensing of cannabis products, as it does not engage in payment transactions and distribution of products.

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Leafly’s legal filing claimed that the Florida Department of Health’s memo was an “unadopted and invalid rule.”

In the ruling issued on Monday, Judge Van Wyk ordered Florida’s DOH to “immediately discontinue reliance on its policy…regarding the online ordering of medical marijuana through third-party websites.”

In a statement emailed to Marijuana Business Daily, Leafly CEO Yoko Miyashita, who recently spoke at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference, said she was “thrilled” with the outcome.

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“We look forward to working with our partners to restart Leafly Pickup throughout Florida effectively immediately,” Miyashita wrote.

Leafly’s iOS App

In the meantime, Leafly recently launched an iPhone app that allows adults in legal markets to place pickup orders for cannabis products within the app.

A new update to Leafly’s iOS app enables iPhone and iPad users to place pickup orders for cannabis in legal state markets.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been reposted with permission.