Missouri House Votes To Unveil Medical Marijuana Business Ownership Details

“That is a type of conditions with unusual bedfellows, of us on reverse ends of the spectrum that usually don’t agree with one another.”

By Jason Hancock, Missouri Unbiased

The Missouri Home voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to require state regulators to reveal possession data for companies granted medical marijuana licenses that the state has withheld from public view.

Democratic Rep. Peter Merideth of St. Louis added the transparency necessities as an modification to an area authorities invoice authorized by the Senate earlier this yr. After a quick debate the place nobody spoke in opposition, the modification was authorized 128-6.

The underlying invoice, which comprises quite a few different Home amendments, was authorized and now heads again to the Senate. The legislative session ends at 6 PM Friday.

Each Republican and Democratic lawmakers argued Tuesday that the Division of Well being and Senior Service’s choice to deem possession data confidential has brought on issues in offering oversight of the medical marijuana program. And that drawback will solely worsen, they contend, if a leisure marijuana poll measure wins voter approval this fall.

“If now we have a scenario the place all the entities that received licenses below this present program have a bonus in a much bigger market, now we have to proceed doing actual oversight to make it possible for they had been working correctly below the prevailing constitutional tips,” Merideth mentioned, pointing to provisions within the proposed poll measure that guarantee present medical marijuana license holders get the preliminary batch of leisure licenses.

Evaluation by The Unbiased and the Missourian final yr of 192 dispensary licenses issued by the state discovered a number of situations the place a single entity was related to greater than 5 dispensary licenses.

Based on the structure, the state can’t subject greater than 5 dispensary licenses to any entity below considerably widespread management, possession or administration. However as a result of DHSS has steadfastly withheld any possession details about license holders from public disclosure, it’s inconceivable to find out who owns what.

The Home tried so as to add the the same transparency modification to laws final yr however was pressured to take away it below menace of veto by Gov. Mike Parson (R).

“I don’t agree with the gentleman from St. Louis Metropolis on absolutely anything,” mentioned state Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, mentioned of Merideth. “However that is one thing the place I do… It’s a great modification that may deliver a little bit bit extra oversight and transparency to this program.”

The state has justified withholding data from public disclosure by pointing to a portion of the medical marijuana constitutional modification adopted by voters in 2018 that claims the division shall “preserve the confidentiality of stories or different data obtained from an applicant or licensee containing any individualized knowledge, data, or data associated to the licensee or its operation…”

In February, the Missouri Supreme Courtroom ordered the state to show over sure medical marijuana utility data that it had argued was confidential to an organization interesting a denied license.

Medical marijuana immediately grew to become huge enterprise in Missouri after voters handed a constitutional modification permitting it in 2018, and competitors for licenses grew to become fierce when the state capped the quantity it will subject.

The Missouri Home launched an investigation into the licensing course of in early 2020, fueled by widespread stories of irregularities in how license purposes had been scored and allegations that conflicts of curiosity inside DHSS and a personal firm employed to attain purposes could have tainted the method.

Legislative criticism of the medical marijuana program, particularly the state’s choice to cap that variety of licenses issued to develop and promote product, have bubbled up periodically all through the session.

In the meantime, rumblings of an FBI investigation across the medical marijuana business have swirled.

In November 2020, the pinnacle of Missouri’s medical marijuana program testified below oath {that a} federal grand jury subpoena his company acquired was related to an FBI investigation in Independence.

Missouri’s medical marijuana regulators acquired two further federal grand jury subpoenas in 2020, with every redacted earlier than being turned over to the media on the request of the federal authorities to obfuscate the data being sought by regulation enforcement.

A Kansas Metropolis-area businessman testified in a deposition that he was questioned by federal regulation enforcement final about medical marijuana licensing in Missouri and utility contracts in Independence—a sign {that a} probably wide-ranging public corruption probe could also be ongoing.

“That is a type of conditions with unusual bedfellows, of us on reverse ends of the spectrum that usually don’t agree with one another,” Merideth mentioned. “However we agree that this as a accountable factor to do.”

This story was first printed by Missouri Unbiased.

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