[shaggyballs]

Good-government watchdogs are particularly concerned about officials getting involved in private-sector work on projects in which they were involved while in elective office.

“The real danger is what are they doing while they’re in office? Do they have an eye on what they’re going to be doing and how they’re going to cash in when they get out?” said John Dunbar, managing editor for politics at the Center for Public Integrity.

[shaggyballs]

Massachusetts regulators granted a preliminary license to run a medical marijuana dispensary earlier this year to a group that includes two New York investors, even after receiving pleas from two women who said the investors had defrauded them of thousands of dollars in an earlier deal.

“I was so mad for so long, when we finally realized we had been totally duped,” said Linda Shaughnessy, 66. “I lost $400,000.”

Nonetheless, in January, the New York investors, who had formed a new company called Patriot Care Corp. with another partner, won preliminary approval from the state of Massachusetts for a medical marijuana dispensary license in Lowell. They were invited to reapply for two more licenses.

Patriot Care spokesman Dennis Kunian said allegations by Shaughnessy and her business partner, Jean Matherly, that they were tricked out of their Arizona dispensaries are not true.

“Complete due process was followed in every single instance,” he said. “The bad guys are doing anything they possibly can to defame us.”

Nicholas Vita, a director of Patriot Care Corp., is also named in a related lawsuit filed last month in Arizona that asserts one of the dispensaries Vita acquired from Shaughnessy has failed to pay a consultant for introducing Vita to Shaughnessy in early 2013 and for subsequently helping Vita with other consulting services.

“Mr. Vita was made aware of the consulting services agreement before he became a significant investor and member of [the Arizona dispensary company],” states the lawsuit filed by 4Front Advisors LLC in Maricopa County Superior Court.

4Front, which has been a consultant for four of the 20 applicants that won preliminary approval Massachusetts dispensaries, says in its Arizona suit that Vita and his partners owe a $50,000 fee and 5 percent of a Prescott, Ariz., dispensary’s gross revenues.


A $50,000 fee....for consulting???....WHAT!!!!
And 4 separate times with different clients...WOW!!
Sounds like a pay off right there! (allegedly)
Well now we know what it takes to get a license in Mass.


The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced finalists for the state’s first 20 provisional marijuana dispensary licenses in January, and almost immediately questions were raised about the state’s selection process. Three lawsuits filed in the past month in Suffolk Superior Court argue that the process was riddled by error and failed to detect misrepresentations, prior legal troubles, or conflicts involving some of the successful applicants, issues that might have resulted in disqualification.

One of those suits, filed Monday, alleges that Patriot Care’s application appears to omit mention of a lawsuit alleging fraud, a judgment for failure to pay taxes, and a bankruptcy, all involving Nick Vita.

Anyone on board with trusting things to the Government???

[dddaver]

This may have already been mentioned but it doesn't take any in depth analysis at all to see this.

It was big news when Florida passed the law allowing Charlotte's Web (CBD) for specific patients, like childhood epilepsy.

But it required the nursery that grew the Charlotte's Web to have 30 years of business in growing. That at first glance is corrupt and authorizes all business to be directed to only a few specific nurseries.

But, on the other hand, it is only what you totally learn to expect living in Florida. It is a VERY corrupted system here. You learn to expect big business will get it's way no matter what. They even corrupted a national presidential election from here so the governor's brother could win.

These guys in politics here ain't the stupid hicks they want everyone to believe, just WAY corrupt.

[shaggyballs]

Bruce Rauner: Medical Marijuana Licenses Should Go To Highest Bidder

https://www.medicalmarijuanatampa.org...te-weaknesses/

Republican Bruce Rauner on Tuesday said if he were governor, he would have vetoed Illinois’ medical marijuana law — but now that it’s law he called for the state to scrap the way it’s giving out licenses to grow and sell the substance. The former venture capitalist said the lucrative licenses should go to the highest bidders. Rauner proposed having an auction for medical marijuana licenses. “Then we can actually make money from the process. Why not?” Rauner said. “Our taxpayers in Illinois deserve a break.”

Democrats and medical marijuana advocates roundly criticized Rauner’s auction suggestion, saying it would benefit the rich, hurt seriously ill patients and potentially cut out the best qualified license applicants. But Rauner said he feared the business of medical marijuana in Illinois was secretive and ripe for corruption. State officials are now accepting business applications for those seeking to grow and sell the medical marijuana. The process opened up Sept. 8 and closes Sept. 22. Right now, there is a competitive application process for 22 licenses for cultivation centers and 60 licenses for dispensaries.

“Thanks to Pat Quinn’s secret, insider process, there are a lot of questions left unanswered,” Rauner said, reading from prepared remarks at a news conference. “But there is something we know for sure: Something stinks, and it’s not the marijuana.” The names of those applying are not public, nor would the rejected applicants become public once the licenses are given out, according to the new law.

A chief sponsor of the legislation said the application process was designed to be secretive, so licenses aren’t given out on the basis of politics. State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said the law was written so that the names and any identifiers of the applicants are not known to the state agencies making the licensing decisions. Rauner, however, pointed to former Quinn chief of staff Jack Lavin, as an example of a danger of political inside dealing. While on the governor’s staff, Lavin worked to pass medical marijuana. One month after it was signed into law, Lavin left the governor’s office. Earlier this spring, Lavin signed on a client seeking a medical marijuana license.

Lang called Illinois’ law among the most rigorous in the nation. “The whole notion that Mr. Rauner would veto the bill, the notion that it would go to the highest bidder, is just callous, and flies in the face of logic,”” Lang said. “It’s pretty insulting to all the legislators who voted for it, it’s insulting to all the patients. ... “So really? ... He would say the person with the most money can get the business? ... They could all be people who aren’t qualified. They could all be on the same block, the same city.”

Rauner’s position is significant because the pilot project in Illinois would be up for renewal in 2017. The next governor would be key to allowing medical marijuana to move forward in the state. When asked if he was just not happy with the current bill or whether he opposed medical marijuana, Rauner said: “Medical marijuana is something I’ve not supported. It’s not a big issue for me either way.” The governor’s office took exception with Rauner’s comments, calling the process “competitive” and “transparent.” Chris Lindsey, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project said he was “deeply troubled” by Rauner’s proposal to auction off the licenses.

“If somebody was pulling political connections in order to get a license, that is going to be clear because that organization will be made public,” Lindsey said. “I have to say that I am deeply troubled that he would treat this program as a money maker for the state ... I’m not sure he understands what the program is for. This isn’t a way to raise revenue. This is a way to provide an option to seriously ill patients. If he wants a money maker he should follow in the footsteps of Washington and Colorado and support a system to tax and regulate marijuana for adults 21 and over. States don’t treat medical marijuana programs as a way to squeeze money from seriously ill patients.”

[shaggyballs]

lets talk more about this issue also!
Friendly debate..PLEASE?


Shag

[TerpeneDream]

Annnd Babylon comes crashing down…

[shaggyballs]

Originally Posted by shaggyballs

lets talk more about this issue also!
Friendly debate..PLEASE?

Shag

[shaggyballs]

Pot Entrepreneur Threatens To Sue Ohio Over MMJ Licensing Process

Jimmy Gould, the CEO of the Cincinnati-based medical marijuana company CannAscend and co-founder of Ohio’s 2015 failed marijuana legalization measure, ResponsibleOhio, called the state’s evaluation process a “travesty” and plans to file a lawsuit over the flawed MMJ licensing process. He claimed that licenses were awarded to political insiders, rather than companies that actually met the criteria outlined by state regulators and called the process “a glorified essay writing contest.”

One company awarded a license had direct ties to former Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder and former Republican Party operative Chris Schrimpf, but the company’s spokesperson claims they were awarded a contract due to the quality of their proposal.

[St. Phatty]

Economic reporting on Cannabis sure is Fake News.

They talk about it as if the Cannabis economy is "growing".

It's not growing at all. The person to person market is partially replaced by the Corporate Black market, and the Corporate Black market's revenues are counted as somehow real.

No more pot is being sold*, it's just that more of the revenues are counted.


* it's possible that people are spending more money on pot, although I doubt that since prices are generally headed down.

It's also possible that people are consuming MORE pot. I'm definitely not.

One of my neighbors said he is - but that's because he had about 15 plants and has several pounds to smoke, so he's smoking it.

[SoulAnnoyed]

Friend of a friend of a friend applied for grow in Arkansas Mmj (5 licenses). 80 pages of bullshit and it was rejected because of a slight error. A lot of money down the drain (exorbitant application fee, nonrefundable) , when I'm sure the 5 producers were 'selected' before the votes were even counted.

5 growers for the most bored, sickest state in the country. Nah, its not corrupt.