Lawsuit could delay when patients can get pot

Medical marijuana might not be available by Ohio’s September deadline if a lawsuit filed Tuesday by 20 would-be growers is successful. One of the leaders in the litigation said marijuana was never going to be available by September, anyway.

“I don’t think the patients are going to get what they need,” said Jimmy Gould, who heads up CannAscend Ohio, an unsuccessful applicant for one of 12 licenses for growing operations of up to 24,000 square feet. Gould helped lead the effort to pass a medical marijuana law in Ohio.

The 78-page lawsuit, filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, claims that the Ohio Department of Commerce violated its own policies when it awarded provisional licenses last year to grow marijuana. The legal action asks the court to revoke the licenses and prevent the department from issuing any operators’ permits.

The licensing process for large cultivators has been marred by a "vast number of failed verifications, scoring errors, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and undisclosed loopholes in the security of information which provided certain department employees with access and opportunity to manipulate or otherwise modify any applicant's information," the suit says.

Gould said that at least five successful applicants didn't meet threshold requirements to get a provisional license. Some didn't have enough cash in the bank to meet liquidity requirements and others proposed to grow in buildings that are less than 500 feet from a prohibited structure such as a school. Others failed to meet either requirement, the suit says.