Sole Douglas County Marijuana License Recipient Sues State for Additional Licenses
By Michael Boyink / mike@douglascountyherald.com
On December 26th, 2019, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced the recipients of medical marijuana cultivation facility licenses.
No applicants from Douglas County made the cut.
On January 10th, 2010, the state announced recipients of medical marijuana manufacturing licenses.
EBC-Missouri, LLC won a license for its Douglas County-based Vanzant location.
On January 24, 2020, EBC-Missouri filed a suit against the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The 45-page suit makes a number of claims against the state, including:
Inconsistent Scoring
EBC filed applications for multiple licenses at multiple locations. EBC claims the state-appointed agency responsible for the scoring, Wise Health, returned different scores for answers that were similar across their separate applications.
Distance to Supplier
Since EBC – Missouri didn’t get a cultivation license, they would have to purchase medical marijuana from another grower in order to manufacture any products. EBC claims this violates a clause in the medical marijuana related law that requires the state to “lift or ease any limit on the number of licensees or certificate holders in order to meet the demand for marijuana for medical use by Qualifying Patients.”
Unconstitutional Delegation
The suit by EBC-Missouri claims that having a third party score the applications for medical-marijuana licenses was unconstitutional.
According to EBC-Missouri, the Missouri Constitution says the state “may consult or contract with other public agencies”, but it can’t delegate critical functions to private, non-governmental entities.
Conflict of Interest
Wise Health, the contractor awarded the work of scoring the medical marijuana license applications for the State of Missouri, is a new joint venture between Oaksterdam University in Oakland, California and Veracious Investigative & Compliance Solutions LLC.
EBC-Missouri claims to have discovered an Oaksterdam Professor who is also listed as a CEO of one of the applicants who did receive a cultivation license from the state.
Demands
Based on the claims in the suit, EBC -Missouri is requesting that the State of Missouri approves the three cultivation licenses they initially applied for.
The State has 30 days to respond to the suit.
