Maryland medical cannabis licensing process not biased says report outcome

Maryland Matters reports

The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, beset by allegations about improprieties in the way it awarded grower and processor licenses last summer, released a report Thursday night showing that there was “no evidence of bias or undue influence in the 2019 license application review process.”

The 40-page report on the investigation into the allegations — including suggestions that former state Del. Cheryl D. Glenn (D), who is headed to federal prison for accepting bribes related to cannabis industry legislation in Annapolis, sought to influence the awarding of licenses — was conducted by the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP. It was led by Gregg L. Bernstein, the former Baltimore City state’s attorney.

2020-09-03 Final MMCC Report

The process of launching and expanding the medical marijuana business in Maryland has been fraught with complaints over racial bias, influence-peddling and lack of fairness. A second round of license applications for growers and processors was mandated by the General Assembly in 2018, in order to expand minority participation in the state’s medical cannabis program. The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission was tasked with awarding up to four new medical cannabis grower licenses and 10 new medical cannabis processor licenses.

The investigation debunks several of the complaints that were leveled against the commission during last year’s second round. Specifically the law firm offered five key takeaways from its avenues of inquiry:

  • That former commission executive director Joy Strand did not have any family member who was affiliated with any license applicant in 2019, despite allegations that surfaced in civil litigation and in a letter from the Legislative Black Caucus. “We found no evidence to support this allegation and credible evidence to the contrary,” the investigators wrote.
  • There was no evidence that any license applicants had improper communications with Morgan State University officials and board members who were tasked with evaluating the applications, or with Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission staff or commissioners. “Isolated and inconsequential contacts occurred between applicants and individuals at MSU, but none were improper and only one occurred during the time period when MSU was reviewing applications,” the law firm wrote.
  • At least three people associated with Morgan State were affiliated with entities that applied for grower or processor licenses: Shelonda Stokes, a member of the MSU Board of Regents; former state Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-Baltimore City), a Morgan State employee; and Ugonna Anyadike, a technical support specialist at MSU. “These affiliations arguably violated a provision of the Commission’s implementing legislation designed to avoid conflicts of interest for third-party evaluators; however, we found no evidence that these applications were scored more, or less, favorably by either the MSU evaluators or Commission staff,” Bernstein’s team wrote.
  • Applicants’ affiliations with Morgan State were not brought to the attention of the commission.
  • Investigators found “no evidence that former Delegate Cheryl Glenn improperly influenced the license application review process,” even though she pled guilty to receiving bribes from a government informant that she believed were designed to obtain her assistance on behalf of particular license applicants. “Although these revelations were troubling, Delegate Glenn’s communications with MMCC during the 2019 license application review were quite limited, and we found no evidence that she improperly influenced the review process,” the law firm wrote.

 

Full report at    https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020/09/04/report-no-evidence-of-bias-in-awards-of-medical-cannabis-licenses/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=MJD_20200908_News_Daily

Also see

 

Probe clears Maryland medical cannabis licensing of bias

 

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