Florida judge advocates online cannabis orders

By Jelena Martinovic

Starting Monday, Florida medical patients will again be able to purchase cannabis products online from licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

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

Photo by Westend61 / Getty Images

“It is a violation to enter into contracts with Leafly.com or any other third-party website for services directly related to the dispensing,” wrote Courtney Coppola, former chief of staff for the health department, in a February 2021 memo.

Shortly after the state health department threatened a $ 500,000 fine, Florida-based medical marijuana operators began disconnecting from third-party online companies, the High Times wrote.

Prior to the February memo, Leafly worked with 277 stores in the Sunshine State and helped process orders for more than half a million patients.

Judge Van Wyk’s new ruling comes after the company’s legal department argued that Leafly is not involved in the dispensing of cannabis products because it does not conduct payments or distribute products.

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Leafly’s legal petition claimed the Florida Department of Health memo was an “unaccepted and invalid rule”.

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

Photo by Jose Luque / EyeEm / Getty Images

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 result.

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

Leafly’s iOS app

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

A new update to Leafly’s iOS app allows iPhone and iPad users to place cannabis pickups in legal government markets.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and was republished with permission.