{"id":52831,"date":"2022-02-09T04:10:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T12:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/02\/09\/missouri-supreme-court-unanimously-orders-medical-marijuana-applicant-disclosures\/"},"modified":"2022-02-09T13:46:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T21:46:05","slug":"missouri-supreme-court-unanimously-orders-medical-marijuana-applicant-disclosures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/02\/09\/missouri-supreme-court-unanimously-orders-medical-marijuana-applicant-disclosures\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Supreme Court Unanimously Orders Medical Marijuana Applicant Disclosures"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department welcomes the clarity provided by the Missouri Supreme Court on disclosure of certain information in appeals of denied business applicants.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Tess Weinberg, Missouri Independent<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that a lower court was justified in ordering the state health department to disclose medical marijuana application info that it had argued was confidential.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health and Senior Services refused to provide applications of businesses who were awarded licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana in an appeal by the California-based company Kings Garden Midwest LLC, who was denied licenses by the state.<\/p>\n

The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed denied applicants\u2019 right to not only appeal their denial, but also asserted that confidential application information is subject to discovery as part of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout all of the information that formed the basis of [the] department\u2019s decision, no meaningful review of that decision can occur,\u201d Judge George W. Draper III wrote in the court\u2019s ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ruling\u2019s impacts may be far-reaching and open an avenue for not just Kings Garden Midwest but hundreds of denied licensees who have pending appeals before state regulators, to gain access to information of successful applicants that has been shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n

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The Department will now begin the process of disclosing application question responses to denied applicants in the appeals process.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services (@HealthyLivingMo) February 9, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Questions have swirled around irregularities in the application scoring process and have been\u00a0at the center of other denied applicants\u2019 successful appeals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lyndall Fraker, the director of DHSS\u2019s Section for Medical Marijuana Regulation, said the Missouri Constitution requires the department to protect information obtained by applicants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department welcomes the clarity provided by the Missouri Supreme Court on disclosure of certain information in appeals of denied business applicants,\u201d Fraker said in a statement.<\/p>\n

An attorney for Kings Garden Midwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s ruling stemmed from an appeal filed by Kings Garden Midwest, which was denied licenses for both of its applications to grow medical marijuana. As part of the company\u2019s appeal, it requested unredacted, complete copies of approved applications to prove its belief that the company\u2019s answers were similar to those who had been granted licenses.<\/p>\n

Part of its basis of that belief was the fact that the company\u2019s two identical applications were scored differently, Joshua Hill, an attorney representing Kings Garden Midwest\u00a0argued at a December hearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite a May ruling<\/a> from\u00a0a Missouri Court of Appeals in the Western District judge\u00a0that DHSS regulators were wrong to withhold the applications, DHSS argued that the the Administrative Hearing Commission acted outside of its authority and that disclosing the information would violate the Missouri Constitution that stipulates the state health department will maintain the confidentiality of information obtained from applicants and licensees.<\/p>\n

James Layton, an attorney arguing on behalf of DHSS, argued in December that no entity would have the authority to compel the department to produce the information, such as if the context was in a grand jury or civil subpoena.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that right is to be breached,\u201d Layton said in December of licensees\u2019 right to confidentiality, \u201cthey are entitled to some process before that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“\u2026The Department welcomes the clarity provided by the Missouri Supreme Court on disclosure of certain information in appeals of denied business applicants. Compliance with the Supreme Court\u2019s order will demonstrate that applications were scored consistently.”<\/p>\n

\u2014 Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services (@HealthyLivingMo) February 9, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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But Judge George W. Draper III wrote on behalf of the court that DHSS\u2019 position would stymie rejected applicants\u2019 ability to pursue their appeals fully.<\/p>\n

To interpret the provision, \u201cas not allowing the discovery of information from the successful applications in the appeals process would result in unsuccessful applicants pursuing an appeal being denied access to information that was an integral part of Department\u2019s decision to deny the application in the first instance,\u201d Tuesday\u2019s ruling read.<\/p>\n

In its brief filed with the Missouri Supreme Court, DHSS had written that competing applications have been requested \u201cin many, perhaps most, of the 578 appeals still pending at the\u201d administrative hearing commission, and that action had been postponed until the issue was addressed by the courts.<\/p>\n

In a separate appeal,\u00a0DHSS recently reached a settlement<\/a> with another denied applicant, NWGMO LLC, by granting the company a license to operate a marijuana cultivation facility \u2014 a rare move that has only occurred a few times prior.<\/p>\n

The Administrative Hearing Commission granted the license after testimony showed the selection system was shaped by \u201cintentionally vague guidance\u201d with no opportunities to review issues. The commission determined that a contractor hired by Wise Health Solutions, a private company DHSS hired to score applications, was unable to articulate a rigid scoring criteria, \u201cbecause he did not use one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another company, Heya LLC,\u00a0was also awarded two cultivation licenses due to scoring errors.<\/p>\n

Secrecy of basic information of medical marijuana licenses has made it difficult to trace who owns what.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0analysis<\/a> by The Independent and The Columbia Missourian previously found\u00a0that of the 192 dispensary licenses issued by the state, there were several instances where a single entity was connected to more than five dispensary licenses \u2014 a violation of Missouri\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

DHSS\u2019s decision to cap the number of licenses for the cultivation, manufacture and sale of medical marijuana and the process by which those select licenses were awarded has been the subject<\/a> of lawsuits,\u00a0complaints from denied applicants\u00a0and\u00a0scrutiny from lawmakers.<\/p>\n

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

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Federal Power Utility Threatens To Shut Off The Lights On Marijuana Businesses After Mississippi Legalizes Medical Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Missouri Supreme Court Unanimously Orders Medical Marijuana Applicant Disclosures<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Missouri Supreme Court Unanimously Orders Medical Marijuana Applicant Disclosures<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe department welcomes the clarity provided by the Missouri Supreme Court on disclosure of certain information in appeals of denied business applicants.\u201d By Tess Weinberg, Missouri Independent In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that a lower court was justified in ordering the state health department toContinue 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":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52831"}],"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=52831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52832,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52831\/revisions\/52832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}