Author of Rx pot amendment appeals to circuit court for license
The author of Arkansas’ medical marijuana amendment on Thursday appealed to circuit court the scoring by state regulators of his group’s application to grow the drug.
Little Rock attorney David Couch, in a complaint, asked Pulaski County Circuit Judge Alice Gray to order the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission to award Boll Weevil Farms of the Delta one of the state’s first five cannabis cultivation licenses.
The commission’s scoring of Boll Weevil Farms’ application was “arbitrary, capricious, and/or in error,” court filings read. Specifically, the company argues that it received 21 points fewer on one section of its proposal than another applicant with identical content in the same section. The company also asked for at least one additional point on another section in which one commissioner gave it no score despite it having the required information.
“These adjustments would result in [Boll Weevil Farms] gaining at least 22 points and finishing with a minimum total score of 434, which would place applicant in the top five scores and make Applicant eligible for the award of a cultivation license,” the company said in its appeal. Boll Weevil Farms was the 18th-highest-scoring applicant for a growing permit.
Boll Weevil’s appeal adds to a flurry of legal challenges to the medical marijuana cultivation license process, but it differs from the others because it’s a narrowly tailored appeal under the Arkansas Administrative Procedure Act.
Other legal challenges — including an earlier lawsuit filed by a competitor, Naturalis Health LLC, that resulted in a preliminary injunction against the commission — claimed there are flaws in the process as a whole. The challenges allege unfair scoring and failures by administrative staff to verify applicants’ compliance with key requirements. Four of the five successful applicants had asked to intervene in the Naturalis suit to argue in favor of the commission’s process as of Thursday evening, and several more disgruntled applicants had moved to intervene to argue against the commission.
Boll Weevil’s complaint only addresses its own application, asking Gray to issue a preliminary injunction; declare the company’s score arbitrary, capricious and in error; order the commission to award it at least 22 more points; and issue Boll Weevil Farms a cultivation license.
The five-member commission released its scores of the 95 cultivation facility proposals on Feb. 27, intending to formally award the five licenses on March 14. The process was stopped by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, who deemed the scoring process “null and void,” halting the licensing process.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is appealing Griffen’s ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Also on Wednesday, Pine Bluff Agriceuticals — the 20th-highest-scoring growing permit applicant — filed a lawsuit against the commission. That suit made no new allegations against the commission; it simply incorporated all the claims included in Naturalis’ complaint.
Pine Bluff Agriceuticals asked the court to stop the commission from awarding licenses; to require the commission to include its application for further consideration; for declaratory judgment that the commission misinterpreted and misapplied its rules; and to rule that the commission acted arbitrarily and capriciously.