Florida courts have ruled that the state’s law requiring to grow, process and distribute cannabis and related products created an “oligopoly.”
The 1st District Court of Appeal decided to uphold a decision issued last year by Leon Circuit Judge Charles Dodson.
Dodson had sided with Tampa-based Florigrown in a lawsuit alleging a state law, passed during a 2017 special legislative session, did not properly carry out the amendment.
Tampa strip club operator and one of the owners of Florigrown, Joe Redner, stated that the ruling was “a good thing for the state of Florida.”
“If the Legislature can create oligarchies in any field, it’s crony capitalism. They’re picking winners and losers. And that’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s not constitutional,” Redner added.
Florigrown CEO Adam Elend called the ruling a “game-changer.”
“It drops a bomb on the current licensing scheme. It’s just changing the whole regime,” Elend explained.
“People are not getting medicine. The dispensaries are out of stock all the time. The products are limited, and the prices are high. That’s what happens in an oligopoly and that’s what we have.”
