Arkansas pot commission looks at hiring of consultant

Focus on dispensary-application scores

After months of controversy around its selection of the state’s first marijuana growers, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission will explore hiring an “independent consultant” to grade the nearly 230 applications for the dispensaries to sell the finished product.

The five-member panel unanimously approved a motion by a commissioner, Dr. Stephen Carroll, to consider outsourcing the evaluations, and it scheduled a July 12 meeting to hear from several state officials about the next steps and to make a final decision.

The commission had planned to rank the applications for 32 dispensary licenses the same way it scored the more than 80 cannabis growing permit bids earlier this year.

But the cultivation licensing process — in which each commissioner individually scored every application — came under fire after unsuccessful applicants and media outlets uncovered a variety of inconsistencies and irregularities.

“I think the public has lost or is losing trust in this commission,” Carroll said before offering his motion, which was adopted after a short discussion.

Monday’s 20-minute meeting was the commission’s first since a circuit court judge stopped it from formally issuing growing permits to the five companies that received the highest scores. Commissioners plan to consider how to proceed with that process at the July 12 meeting, after an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling overturning the lower court’s injunction is finalized.

[DOCUMENTS: Read complaints filed + winning applications from top five growers]

Unsuccessful cultivation applicants have asked for a similar overhaul of that permitting process, but the five successful companies have argued that would equate to changing the rules in the middle of the game.

The commission must change its own rules if it wants to hire an independent consultant, and altering the rules requires legislative approval. The Arkansas Legislative Council — the legislative body that approves such tweaks — isn’t scheduled to meet again until Aug.

17.

Any consulting contract, under state law, also would have to go through the state procurement process.

The commissioners will weigh those delays against the time it would take for them to score each dispensary proposal, which are hundreds of pages long.

“People have voted for this; it’s our job to move through the process as quickly as we can,” Commissioner Travis Story said. “Yes, there’s different avenues here, but we don’t want to ultimately end up with a year-long process by hiring somebody outside and maybe in that time we might can get it done.”

Mary Robin Casteel, director of the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, which provides administrative support to the commission, noted that the terms of two commissioners — Dr. Carlos Roman and Carroll — expire in December.

“Frankly, just the volume of the dispensary applications, I’m not sure the commission has enough time — this commission as it sits — to get those scored by the end of two commissioners’ terms,” she said.

Patient advocates have urged commissioners to quickly approve dispensaries. Those facilities, under Amendment 98 to the Arkansas Constitution, will be allowed to grow a limited amount of medical marijuana. The amendment, approved by voters in 2016, requires that medical marijuana be grown and processed in the Natural State.

Hopeful medical marijuana businesses and industry insiders for weeks have suggested that the commission change its application process, and most praised Monday’s action.

Alex Gray, an attorney for the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Association, said the decision was “wise,” and he noted that such a process would be much harder to challenge in court.

Several commissioners emphasized the importance of keeping the final licensing decision in the commission’s hands even if the scoring is conducted by an outside firm. Former Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, a stakeholder and attorney for one of the five companies selected to receive cultivation licenses, keyed in on that idea too.

“I applaud this decision,” he said in an email. “The use of an independent consultant is a tool in their toolbox that they might not have needed but for the long delay due to an injunction. It should also add a level of independence to the scores, while still leaving the commissioners’ authority intact.”

However, Baron Crane, who is part of a group that applied for two dispensaries in north Arkansas, is concerned that bringing in an out-of-state consultant to score the applications could be detrimental.

“They might view things differently and not have Arkansas’ best interests in mind,” he said.

Crane is also worried about continued delays. His group, like many, entered into agreements with property owners that would allow it to buy or rent property if they’re selected by the commission for a medical marijuana license. However, those agreements didn’t anticipate the lengthy delays, and some landowners are unwilling to wait much longer, he said.

“The point is trying to move forward, not that we’re trying to not do the job of the commission,” said the commission chairman, Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman.

Upcoming Events