Pubdate: Wed, 01 Jul 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Kay Lazar

LOTS OF INTEREST SHOWN FOR NEW BATCH OF MARIJUANA LICENSES

Massachusetts's First Medical Marijuana Dispensary Opened Last Week in Salem.

More than 50 applications from companies eager to open medical 
marijuana dispensaries flooded the offices of state regulators this 
week, two years after Massachusetts launched its ill-fated licensing process.

The submission of so many applications indicated robust interest in 
the state's emerging medical marijuana industry. The state had 
previously licensed 15 dispensaries, with the first opening last week in Salem.

For marijuana executives who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars 
vying for licenses during former governor Deval Patrick's 
administration, the opportunity to apply again couldn't come soon enough.

Concerns about political favoritism, conflicts of interest, companies 
with questionable financial structures, and executives with 
questionable pasts mired the process last time around. As a result, 
more than two dozen lawsuits were filed, and patients were left 
without any dispensaries until last week.

Regulators from the administration of Governor Charlie Baker recently 
revamped the system for awarding licenses, promising the new process 
will strip away the subjectivity and secrecy that had tainted it 
under Patrick's tenure. The latest applications will be considered in 
the order received, the state Department of Public Health said 
Tuesday. View Story

State overhauls rules for licensing

Regulators said the revamped licensing strips away the subjectivity 
and secrecy that had tainted the system.

The health department has not released the names of the applicants, 
but the leaders of several marijuana companies confirmed Tuesday they 
had reapplied.

"I have learned to meter my expectations based on the rough road we 
had," said Jeffrey Roos, chief executive of Mass Medi-Spa, which has 
reapplied for dispensary licenses in Norwell and Nantucket.

'I think this process makes so much more sense this time around.' 
Rina Cametti, Beacon Compassion Center, whose application was 
rejected previously

Roos said he believes his company was unfairly knocked out of the 
selection process last time, based on a faulty review by health 
department contractors. Now, he said, he has more confidence after 
hearing the Baker administration's plan to license dispensaries in a 
format similar to other health care facilities, such as pharmacies.

Each application will be judged on its merits, using guidelines 
posted by the department on its website, and will move forward when 
the company meets the overhauled standards, officials have said. The 
old system involved scoring, essentially pitting applications against 
each other.

Roos said his new applications closely resemble his earlier ones, but 
he has beefed up his board of trustees, including the addition of Dr. 
Bob Arnot - a physician, author, and former news correspondent for 
CBS and NBC - to advise the company on medical issues.

"Dr. Bob is a longtime Nantucket summer resident," Roos said. "He has 
a passion for cannabis science and the opportunities that lie ahead of us."

Arnot's agent, Alan Morell, confirmed that his client has agreed to 
be a medical adviser on Medi-Spa's board.

One name that has left the lineup of applicants is William Delahunt, 
the former US representative from the South Shore.

Delahunt's former company, Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts, 
resubmitted just one application, for a dispensary in Plymouth 
County, according to its new chief executive, Jonathan Herlihy.

Under the Patrick administration, the company had been tapped for 
three dispensary licenses, in Mashpee, Plymouth, and Taunton. But 
regulators later rejected the company after questions were raised 
about its financial structure and potential conflicts of interest 
between Delahunt and the Patrick administration's health 
commissioner, Cheryl Bartlett. Delahunt has since left the company.

A judge in April ruled that regulators acted improperly when they 
dropped Medical Marijuana. The judge ordered that the company be 
allowed to move ahead with its plans in Mashpee and Plymouth, and 
Herlihy said he is now working with state regulators on those applications.

Amid the legal morass, Herlihy said his company continued to pay rent 
on a vacant, 46,000-square-foot cultivation center for the past 18 months.

"We raised $3 million and spent quite a bit of that on rent and 
lawyers," Herlihy said. "We now have to raise another $3 million or 
more to go forward. We have to go back to those investors and see if 
they are willing to contribute more."

Rina Cametti, president of Beacon Compassion Center, is also huddling 
with her investors. The company this week submitted three 
applications, two in Norfolk County and one in Middlesex County. 
Cametti's company was one of five that received among the highest 
marks during licensing evaluation by the Patrick administration, only 
to be left hanging.

At the time, regulators would say only that one of Beacon's 
executives didn't pass a background check, but that if the executive 
were removed, the company could continue in the licensing process.

Beacon Compassion and the other four companies removed executives 
deemed questionable by regulators, but the companies were then all 
rejected without comment.

"I think this process makes so much more sense this time around," 
Cametti said. "I have my fingers crossed that the Baker 
administration will work in a much more timely manner."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom