Florida’s attempt to create a non-euphoric medical marijuana industry took a couple more hits this week as a Central Florida grower and a South Florida trade association charged that proposed rules were not legal.

A partnership of Master Growers of Sanford and Baywood Nurseries of Apopka filed a formal challenge Tuesday against the latest rules developed by the Florida Department of Health, arguing that the rule-writing process was unfair and led to a process that would tilt state decisions toward politically-favored companies.

The Medical Cannabis Trade Associations of Florida, out of Fort Lauderdale, charged that the rules are vague, arbitrary and capricious in another challenge filed Tuesday.

The state rules would govern how the the Department of Health would pick five companies statewide to grow, process and sell marijuana products as medicine for people with epilepsy and other neurological disorders, as well as cancer.

With its potential to create the ground floor of a possible fuller medical marijuana industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars one day, the rule-making process has become a battleground among companies seeking one of those first five production licenses. [Read more at the Orlando Sentinel]