Pubdate: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 Source: Boston Herald (MA) Copyright: 2014 The Boston Herald, Inc Contact: http://news.bostonherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53 Page: 14 SPEAKER TALKING SENSE Gov. Deval Patrick and his team have a communal allergy to acknowledging their own shortcomings (see above). But evidence is overwhelming that the allegedly "rigorous" vetting process for those seeking a license to peddle "medical" marijuana in Massachusetts has been anything but. Now House Speaker Robert DeLeo is joining the chorus of voices suggesting the administration scrap it and start from scratch, and good for him. DeLeo says he has been troubled by the drumbeat of reports on problems uncovered in the original applications, such as the inclusion in some cases of misleading and outright false information. Of course that drumbeat isn't coming from DPH, which simply responds to the troubling reports in this newspaper and others by recycling the same old statement noting that no final decisions on licensure have been made, and the review process is ongoing and "intensive." But like anyone with a pulse and the ability to read, DeLeo seems to recognize that the public can not possibly have confidence in the system as currently structured. At the root of it all, of course, are the wannabe pot peddlers who fudged some of the important details in their applications. Now DPH is the subject of a lawsuit from one failed applicant for a license, who alleges political favoritism in the selection process (and would seem to have a pretty good case). Meanwhile companies that applied for and secured a license but say their applications were squeaky-clean are angry with the calls for a do-over. When DPH released the list of 20 dispensaries approved for provisional licensure, the agency made clear it had done its homework. "The citizens of the Commonwealth can be assured that this process was thoroughly and accurately vetted," DPH said in a press release Jan. 31. We now know that was a straight-up lie. Patrick spends far too much time listening to members of his own staff, whose main interest is in covering their own butts (and his). This time around he should consider listening to the speaker of the House. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt