A Florida judge will soon decide if patients approved to use medical marijuana will be allowed to smoke it.

Leon County circuit court Judge Karen Gievers heard testimony Wednesday challenging the state’s ban on smoking cannabis.

Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2016 allowing the use of medical marijuana through vaping and in food, oils, sprays and tinctures. The Legislature last year included a provision banning it from being smoked, and Gov. Rick Scott signed the measure into law in June.

Two patients argued that because the amendment’s language only mentions smoking in public, users should be allowed to smoke in private. One of them is Cathy Jordan, who has had ALS since 1986. Jordan told the judge that smoking the plant is the only effective way for her to use it as medicine.

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