There is a new lawsuit against the state of Ohio that was filed by six unsuccessful applicants to grow medical marijuana in the state.
The applicants are claiming that Ohio regulators did not follow their own rules while scoring cultivator applications. They claim that the regulators made several scoring errors and hired scoring consultants that had conflicts of interest.
Jimmy Gould of CannAscend Ohio LLC filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Franklin County Common Pleas court along with other groups, challenging the Ohio Department of Commerce’s process for awarding the highly sought after licenses.
The applicants are seeking for a judge to block the state from awarding operating licenses to the 12 companies awarded provisional licenses for large-scale growing facilities.
Others in the lawsuit are: Appalachian Pharm Products LLC, CannaMed Therapeutics LLC, Palliatech Ohio LLC, Trillium Holdings Inc. and Schottenstein Aphria LLC.
The defendents listed in the lawsuit are: Ohio Department of Commerce Director Jacqueline Williams, three scoring consultants and the 12 companies awarded large-scale grow licenses.
According to the lawsuit, the groups are alleging that:
Five licenses were awarded to companies that should have been disqualified for failing to meet pass-fail criteria or misrepresenting compliance with those requirements.
The two minority-owned companies that received licenses aren’t actually owned and operated by individuals meeting the law’s definition for the set-aside.
Scores for at least 14 applications were calculated incorrectly.
Scoring consultants, including two who had knowledge of the scoring rubric in advance of the application deadline, had blatant conflicts of interest with companies awarded licenses.
