Pubdate: Sat, 15 Feb 2014
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2014 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.
Author: John Zaremba

POT SHOP FLIP-FLOP

Co. Switched Out Prez With Weed Conviction

A West Coast medical marijuana magnate and convicted felon whose role 
in a proposed Roxbury pot shop was downplayed as a "strategic 
adviser" was, in fact, the company's president until the day before 
the firm applied for a state weed-dealing license, the Herald has learned.

Corporate filings for Green Heart Holistic Health & Pharmaceuticals 
Inc. list Stephen R. DeAngelo - who pleaded guilty to possession with 
intent to deliver 50 pounds or more of marijuana in Maryland in 2001 
- - as the company president and a member of the board of directors as 
of Nov. 18.

But his name does not appear on an amended version of that document 
dated Nov. 20 - the day before the deadline to apply for a dispensary 
license. That version instead lists his brother and business partner, 
Andrew DeAngelo, as the nonprofit's president.

The DeAngelo brothers are well-known medical marijuana activists who 
lobbied in the mid-1990s for a legalization law in Washington, D.C.; 
they co-founded the gargantuan Harborside Health Center dispensary in 
East Oakland, which bills itself as the largest in the world.

Green Heart's paperwork directly contradicts a statement the company 
issued this week after Herald inquires about Stephen DeAngelo's 
criminal record. The statement describes Stephen DeAngelo as Green 
Heart's "strategic adviser" and says he "is not now, nor ever has 
been a member of our executive management team."

A Green Heart spokesman declined to answer a Herald reporter's 
questions, and promised a statement yesterday but never provided one. 
A spokesman for Harborside Health Center, the mammoth pot shop the 
DeAngelo brothers founded in Oakland in 2006, could not be reached. A 
call to a listed number for DeAngelo was not returned last night.

Keeping Stephen DeAngelo on as president could have disqualified 
Green Heart from the running for a medical-marijuana license, as 
state regulations say managers, employees and volunteers of pot 
dispensaries cannot have criminal felony convictions.

A spokesman for the state Department of Mental Health declined to say 
whether the last-minute change in company officers would affect Green 
Heart's license. The company's application earned the second score of 
the 20 nonprofits that were granted licenses.

Green Heart Holistic Health & Pharmaceuticals is proposing a 
dispensary at 70 Southampton St., a location that would put it near 
the Orchard Gardens K-8 elementary school, three methadone clinics and a biolab.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom