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.
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MAP posted-by: Matt