Why is it so difficult to secure a cannabis-growing license in states that have voted to legalize medical marijuana?
This week in Arkansas the first lawsuit against the state’s Medical Marijuana Commission (MMC) was filed on Tuesday by Naturalis Health to appeal their denial of a cultivation license and to temporarily prevent the state from issuing those licenses to other companies.
Later in the day, Delta Cannabinoid Corp. filed another lawsuit for essentially the same reasons.
Both companies claim that MMC’s review process was arbitrary and capricious and that the panel would be violating its own rules if cannabis-growing licenses are issued to the five successful companies on Wednesday, as expected.
Adding to the hot mess, earlier in the week River Valley Relief Cultivation sent a missive to state regulators asking them to put the entire licensing process – such as it is – on hold. According to River Valley’s attorneys, one of the five successful applicants lied about being MMJ experts.
Naturalis Health’s lawsuit, per KATV, calls the selection process “plagued by unlawful and inconsistent procedures” and says the scoring system was unbalanced.
Perhaps Arkansas needs to issue more than five licenses. After all, hundreds of growers applied for the prized permissions.
But, someone tried not to be a sore loser.
Sixth runner up, actually tied for sixth place, New Day Cultivation, did an economic impact study noting that if they been one of the lucky five granted a cultivation license, they would have brought in a cool $82 million dollars through 2022.
Think of all that those tax dollars that could be going to the state of Arkansas, where the public schools could surely use a bit of help. Sadly, the Arkansas public education system ranks 41st in the nation.
