By Toni Clarke and Anna Yukhananov Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:22pm EST (Reuters) - A federal judge allowed the Drug Enforcement Administration to suspend Cardinal Health Inc's license to distribute potentially addictive drugs from its facility in Lakeland, Florida. The court ruling is part of an ongoing battle between Cardinal and the DEA over how best to fight prescription drug abuse, and is likely to crimp Cardinal's business for the next 12 months. Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had previously given Cardinal a temporary restraining order to block the DEA suspension of the Lakeland facility, which serves about 2,700 customers, while it pleads its case to a judge within the DEA. Walton said on Wednesday that after getting more information from the DEA, he agreed with the decision to suspend Cardinal's license. "I think DEA is correct that companies have an obligation to police themselves... and to be proactive in assessing whether diversion (of controlled substances) is taking place," Walton said during a hearing in court. Cardinal, if it were being proactive, should have found a problem with those pharmacies, and should have taken some action earlier. That process could take as long as a year to play out as both sides present their cases. The DEA judge will then make a recommendation to the DEA's administrator, Michele Leonhart, who will make a ruling. Reporting By Toni Clarke in Boston and Anna Yukhananov in Washington D.C.; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Andre Grenon and Tim Dobbyn