Tampa club owner, Redner files suit over medical marijuana

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Joe Redner is one of the 18,500 card carrying Floridians with the right - the constitutional right - to get medical marijuana.

"I have restless legs and I believe I got it from the chemo," he said. "It calms me down. I am able to sleep at night, without too much interruption."

The strip club and brewery owner uses a syringe to ingest the THC oil he buys from a dispensary in Tampa.

But it's not his first choice.

"I want the whole plant. I want to juice it like you would carrots, and vegetables and things like that," he said. "I want to drink it every day."

He is filing suit, saying the Florida Department of Health has a ban on growing your own plant, which he says contradicts the constitutional amendment passed in 2016.

He insists it allows patients to have any part of a marijuana plant.

Thus he says the department unfairly dictates his treatment.

"I don't see how you lose on this one," said Redner. "That amendment says what it says."

Redner believes a successful lawsuit could make it easier for others to get less expensive treatment. Attorney Leslie Sammis specializes in marijuana cases and says the lawsuit may have merit because people are ostensibly forced to choose treatment or the law.

"It is not just happening in this one case, it is happening every single day with lots of people who use marijuana for medical purposes."

After six years with stage four cancer, Redner says he is doing well but could be doing better if he could juice his THC.

"You feel better, you are getting old,  it relaxes you," he said. "It makes your whole life better and worth living."

Redner says the Department of Health will be served on Monday with the six-page lawsuit. They have to respond to it within twenty days, so any court proceedings won't happen until then. A spokesman told FOX 13 they can not comment on pending litigation.