{"id":47705,"date":"2021-05-14T05:31:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T13:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/05\/14\/missouri-regulators-derail-medical-marijuana-business-ownership-disclosure-effort-with-veto-threat\/"},"modified":"2021-05-14T13:45:32","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T21:45:32","slug":"missouri-regulators-derail-medical-marijuana-business-ownership-disclosure-effort-with-veto-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/05\/14\/missouri-regulators-derail-medical-marijuana-business-ownership-disclosure-effort-with-veto-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Regulators Derail Medical Marijuana Business Ownership Disclosure Effort With Veto Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Missouri regulators say they feel requiring medical marijuana business license ownership disclosures under a House-approved amendment could be unconstitutional, and they may urge the governor to veto the legislation.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

By Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent<\/strong><\/p>\n

An effort by lawmakers to require disclosure of ownership information for businesses granted medical marijuana licenses<\/a> was derailed on Thursday, when state regulators suggested a possible gubernatorial veto.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Missouri House voted to require the Department of Health and Senior Services provide legislative oversight committees with records regarding who owns the businesses licensed to grow, transport and sell medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

The provision was added as an amendment<\/a> to another bill pertaining to nonprofit organizations.<\/p>\n

Its sponsor, Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, said DHSS\u2019s decision to deem ownership records confidential has caused problems in providing oversight of the program. He pointed to recent analysis<\/a> by The Independent and The Missourian of the 192 dispensary licenses issued by the state that found several instances where a single entity was connected to more than five dispensary licenses.<\/p>\n

The state constitution prohibits the state from issuing more than five dispensary licenses to any entity under substantially common control, ownership or management.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, a conference committee met to work out differences in the underlying bill between the House and Senate.<\/p>\n

Sen. Eric Burlison, a Republican from Battlefield and the bill\u2019s sponsor, called the medical marijuana amendment an \u201cawesome idea. I think it\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said opposition from the department puts the entire bill in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department came to me,\u201d he said, \u201cand said they felt that this was unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

DHSS has justified withholding information from public disclosure by pointing to a portion of the medical marijuana constitutional amendment adopted by voters in 2018 that says the department shall \u201cmaintain the confidentiality of reports or other information obtained from an applicant or licensee containing any individualized data, information, or records related to the licensee or its operation\u2026 .\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Tuttle, a lobbyist for DHSS, said if the bill were to pass with the medical marijuana amendment still attached, the department may recommend Gov. Mike Parson veto it.<\/p>\n

The threat of a veto proved persuasive, as several members of the conference committee expressed apprehension about the idea of the amendment sinking the entire bill.<\/p>\n

Merideth said the department\u2019s conclusion is incorrect. And besides, he said, the amendment is narrowly tailored so that the information wouldn\u2019t be made public. It would only be turned over to legislative oversight committees.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jered Taylor, R-Republic, chairman of the special committee on government oversight, said the amendment is essential to ensure state regulators \u201care following the constitution, that they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re supposed to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The medical marijuana program has faced intense scrutiny in the two years since it was created by voters.<\/p>\n

A House committee spent months looking into widespread reports of irregularities in how license applications were scored and allegations of conflicts of interest within DHSS and a private company hired to score applications.<\/p>\n

In November 2019, DHSS received a grand jury subpoena, which was issued by the United States District Court for the Western District. It demanded the agency turn over all records pertaining to four medical marijuana license applications.<\/p>\n

The copy of the subpoena that was made public redacted the identity of the four applicants at the request of the FBI. Lyndall Fraker, director of medical marijuana regulation, later said during a deposition that the subpoena wasn\u2019t directed at the department but rather was connected to an FBI investigation center in Independence.<\/p>\n

More recently, Parson faced criticism for a fundraiser with medical marijuana business owners for his political action committee, Uniting Missouri.<\/p>\n

The group reported raising $45,000 in large donations from the fundraiser. More than half of that money came from a PAC connected to Steve Tilley, a lobbyist with numerous medical marijuana clients who has been under FBI scrutiny for more than a year.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

GOP Senator Who Trashed Marijuana Banking Amendment Years Ago Is Now Cosponsoring Reform Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The post Missouri Regulators Derail Medical Marijuana Business Ownership Disclosure Effort With Veto Threat<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Missouri Regulators Derail Medical Marijuana Business Ownership Disclosure Effort With Veto Threat<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missouri regulators say they feel requiring medical marijuana business license ownership disclosures under a House-approved amendment could be unconstitutional, and they may urge the governor to veto the legislation.\u00a0 By Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent An effort by lawmakers to require disclosure of ownership information for businesses granted medical marijuana licensesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1335,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47706,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47705\/revisions\/47706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}