Lawyer Mark Dion uses his problem-solving skills in legal conflicts arising from medical marijuana. A man from a small York County town had his medical marijuana stolen and was getting no satisfaction from the local police, who were skeptical that a burglary had been committed. As a result, he couldn't get his insurance company to cover the loss. Enter Mark Dion, former cop, former sheriff, now criminal defense attorney. He was able to convince police that the theft was legitimate, clearing the way for his client to get compensation. [continues 1128 words]
When proponents and users of medical marijuana gathered in Deering Oaks Park Saturday for the Atlantic CannaFest medical cannabis festival, it wasn't the last word in Maine or the Northeast about a form of medicine that advocates say is gaining acceptance. "It's such a big change in just the past few years even, seeing the wide mix of people openly talking about this and not being afraid of a plant, the communication; more and more people are growing and seeing the actual therapeutic benefits," said Hillary Lister, an advocate for medical marijuana use through Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine, a trade association. [continues 630 words]
PORTLAND - About 200 people showed up Deering Oaks Park Saturday for the Atlantic CannaFEST. A reggae band from the Boston area, High Hopes, were performing at the bandstand. People were lined at the sole food vendor in the park. People were also lined up in front of the booth for High Tech Grower Supply store, picking up free samples of equipment used to grow marijuana hydroponically. Several politcal candidates are on hand and speakers include Dustin Sulak, a doctor who has offices in Hallowell and Falmouth. Sulak certifies patients and assists them in using marijuana as a medication. The nearby childen's park at Deering Oaks was filled with children and their parents, many of them unaware of the fesitval. The festival promotes medical marijuana and protests the high price of state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries. [end]
A formal study has shown that heavy use can produce permanent loss of critical IQ points. In a report released online this week by the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of U.S. and British researchers has found that heavy use of marijuana by teenagers and young adults can reduce their IQ scores by as much as 8 points in later life. No such results were found in people who smoked the same amount of pot but started using the drug later in life, the report said. People who started young also were found to have weaker memory and attention-focusing skills. [continues 347 words]
Adolescent pot use can literally be a dumb idea. A formal study has shown that heavy use can produce permanent loss of critical IQ points. In a report released online this week by the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of U.S. and British researchers has found that heavy use of marijuana by teenagers and young adults can reduce their IQ scores by as much as 8 points in later life. No such results were found in people who smoked the same amount of pot but started using the drug later in life, the report said. People who started young also were found to have weaker memory and attention-focusing skills. [continues 351 words]
The Rally Will Promote Medical Marijuana and Protest Dispensary Prices, but to City Officials It's Another Day in the Park. PORTLAND - Visitors to Deering Oaks on Saturday may take in a little more than fresh air. The park will be the venue for a free medical marijuana rally and festival featuring speakers, music and vendors selling indoor growing equipment. The Atlantic CannaFEST will run from 1 to 5 p.m. and is expected to draw 200 to 300 people. It will promote medical marijuana and include a high-profile giveaway of pot to low-income patients, to protest the prices at state-sanctioned dispensaries. [continues 1085 words]
Festival Will Run From 1 to 5 P.M. Saturday and Is Expected to Draw 200 to 300 People, but Pot Smoking Will Not Be Allowed PORTLAND -- Visitors to Deering Oaks on Saturday may take in a little more than fresh air. The park will be the venue for a free medical marijuana rally and festival featuring speakers, music and vendors selling indoor growing equipment. The Atlantic CannaFEST will run from 1 to 5 p.m. and is expected to draw 200 to 300 people. It will promote medical marijuana and include a high-profile giveaway of pot to low-income patients, to protest the prices at state-sanctioned dispensaries. [continues 1082 words]
The organizer of a Portland event billed as a benefit for low-income and terminal medical marijuana patients will still be required to pay city fees, in spite of an expectation of a First Amendment exemption deferring these fees, officials confirmed Wednesday. Dismayed, the organizer vowed Wednesday to forge ahead with the festival, saying it's too late to call off the live music, speakers and food offerings. Atlantic CannaFEST, an event informing the public about Maine's medical marijuana program, remains scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 1, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Deering Oaks Park. [continues 889 words]
There was a time when it didn't look like enough donors would step forward for Charlie Wynott to meet the city's financial requirements to use Deering Oaks Park for Saturday's Atlantic CannaFEST. The educational medical marijuana event is being run on a shoestring budget. "They were asking for a deposit and insurance and whatnot," Wynott recalled. Then, inspiration struck. "We were actually given the idea through Occupy Maine for the free speech and right to occupy public space amendment to the city code," said the patient and founder of the organization, Atlantic Cannabis, a nonprofit that helps low income and terminal patients to access medical marijuana. [continues 353 words]
Over a year ago, Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, raised eyebrows when she proposed legislation legalizing marijuana. Today, Russell -- who's up for re-election in District 120, which includes part of Munjoy Hill -- says she has reintroduced her bill, LD 1453, with hopes of shepherding it through the Maine Legislature in the next session. Russell, whose "Act to Legalize and Tax Marijuana" failed in 2011, is expected to restoke the legalization debate in 2013. She advocates legalization as a way to rechannel public resources now used to prosecute marijuana users. [continues 804 words]
HARMONY -- Attendance was light, but the party rolled on. Between Thursday and Sunday, about 500 people camped on a grassy field for the 22nd annual Hempstock, a four-day festival of peace, love, music -- and hemp. Event organizer Don Christen said the goal of the annual party is simple. "We want to legalize marijuana, period," he said. "People who smoke marijuana are not criminals. The perception of marijuana is distorted." For the past four years, Christen has hosted the festival on his Carson Hill Road property, called Freedom Field. Originally, the event had been held on a farm in Starks, but the landowner started his own annual pot party and cut Christen out, he said. Since then, attendance at Christen's event has slipped. [continues 346 words]
I just finished reading the proposed medical marijuana changes. Are you kidding me? The law was voted by the people of Maine. Why is there always someone who doesn't need medical marijuana who is trying to control how it is grown or distributed? The cost of seeing a doctor who charges $300 for a 10 minute visit and the cost of the medical marijuana are bad enough. So let's make it more expensive so that we who need it can't afford it at all. [continues 153 words]
Former soldier Scott Durst will help train drug agents to take down narcotics operations. Scott Durst has spent the past 30 years fighting drugs in Maine, locking up users, dealers and distributors as part of his job keeping the streets safe in his adopted state. Now, he's taking that fight to one of the most dangerous and desolate places on Earth, going after some of the worst drugs at their source: Afghanistan. Durst, a longtime agent with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency who served as a soldier in Bosnia and Iraq, is leaving Thursday on a mission as a contractor training Afghanistan's drug agents how to infiltrate and take down narcotics operations. [continues 743 words]
A legislator who championed amendments to Maine's medical marijuana law as a way to bring it in line with voter intent said she hopes the state doesn't make the same mistakes again. After a public hearing Monday on a controversial rule making that's now underway, Rep. Deb Sanderson, R-Chelsea, said the state should not implement rules that are more restrictive and divergent from the intent of the citizen's initiative legalizing medical marijuana passed in 2009. "Hopefully the department will take into serious consideration much of the compelling testimony that was put before them," Sanderson said Tuesday, a day after a hearing in Augusta where a crowd testified about proposed rules regulating medical marijuana. [continues 614 words]
AUGUSTA -- Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995, Falmouth resident Kelly Irwin found that marijuana worked better to treat her pain, fatigue and nausea far better than the opiates she was prescribed. Irwin has successfully grown her own medical marijuana, but she worries she won't be able to do that anymore if legislators approve new regulations on cultivation. She was one of dozens patients, caregivers and advocates who packed a legislative committee room to overflowing on Monday to complain about proposed requirements for 8-foot fences, motion-activated floodlights, property setbacks and vegetative plant limits. [continues 612 words]
AUGUSTA, Maine - Patients who use medical marijuana and their caregivers said Monday that new rules proposed for Maine's medical marijuana program could make it too expensive to grow a plant many depend on to manage pain, nausea and other chronic conditions. Some who spoke at a public hearing on the rules proposal also questioned whether the state Department of Health and Human Services has the authority to implement such changes without legislative approval. [continues 629 words]
Imagine that you have Crohn's disease, terminal cancer or chronic pain from a serious car accident. You've tried all the drugs out there, but they make you nauseated, withdrawn or cause severe headaches. When you try to stop taking them, you feel anxious and crampy and can't sleep. You're scared because friends have gotten hooked on some of these drugs, and you know someone who died from an overdose. The one thing that allows you to eat, sleep, or function semi-normally is marijuana. [continues 680 words]
President Obama tried again to do the right thing and let states alone to regulate and enforce medical marijuana laws, keeping federal law in place in case they're needed to clean up any danger to the industry. For now it looks like the plan is mostly working. California and Colorado have become perps for federal agents to clean out. I'm a liberal Libertarian and proud of our President and his staff, for in a conservative way are successfully being pro-active before people making too much money get more greedy. I have a license, if you will, to purchase legal marijuana when presenting my recommendation for prescription is up to date. I'm 59 years old and have been buying illegal dope with what-all in it from bikers and poor folk and street vendors, sharing between friends. [continues 387 words]
It seemed strange that aging crooner Tony Bennett's first comment on the death of Whitney Houston was a plea for the legalization of now-outlawed drugs. But his point deserves some consideration, despite the fact that no illegal drugs appear to have been involved in Houston's death. Although she admitted to illegal drug use in the past, and had been treated for it, this time she appears to have overdosed on powerful prescription drugs. With the autopsy results still weeks away, that account may change as the investigation proceeds, but this is a sad story no matter what develops. [continues 727 words]
It seemed strange that aging crooner Tony Bennett's first comment about the death of Whitney Houston was a plea for the legalization of now-outlawed drugs. His point deserves some consideration, however, in spite of the fact that no illegal drugs appear to have been involved in Houston's death. Although she admitted to illegal drug use in the past, and had been treated for it, this time she appears to have overdosed on powerful prescription drugs. With the autopsy results still weeks away, that account may change as the investigation proceeds, but this is a sad story no matter what develops. [continues 732 words]
It's been nearly two years since voters approved the sale and use of medical marijuana for qualifying patients in Maine. Since that time, licenses to operate dispensaries have been awarded to eight health districts across the state, including Hallowell. As the city's mayor, I have been working with state and local law enforcement, along with Becky DeKeuster, executive director of the Wellness Connection of Maine, the non-profit that will operate the Hallowell dispensary, to ensure that all regulations have been met and that our community will be protected. [continues 161 words]
At open house for dispensary, Wellness Connection of Maine says it's ready to meet needs HALLOWELL -- The state's newest medical marijuana dispensary opened Tuesday to the public for the first and last time. Wellness Connection of Maine hosted an open house at the dispensary, which recently began seeing patients by appointment. Now, following Tuesday's public unveiling, only patients and their caregivers will be able to access the office at 115 Water St. Since its first full week of operation last week, the dispensary has served about 30 patients, said Faith Benedetti, who works in patient services. [continues 746 words]
State's Newest Marijuana Clinic Recently Began Operating in Hallowell HALLOWELL -- The state's newest medical marijuana dispensary opened Tuesday to the public for the first and last time. Wellness Connection of Maine hosted an open house at the dispensary, which recently began seeing patients by appointment. Now, following Tuesday's public unveiling, only patients and their caregivers will be able to access the office at 115 Water St. Since its first full week of operation last week, the dispensary has served about 30 patients, said Faith Benedetti, who works in patient services. [continues 746 words]
AUGUSTA -- As Maine's largest medical marijuana nonprofit organization plans to open its dispensaries, the man originally tapped to run its growing operation says the organization does not have enough space to grow the product its patients need. Meanwhile, leading state patient advocates say those who have signed up to receive medical marijuana from a Wellness Connection of Maine dispensary in Thomaston have run up against difficulty setting up appointments and stringent product limits that are well below the amounts allowed by state law. [continues 1847 words]
My initial response to the Dec. 28 editorial, "Pot dispensary a pharmacy, not a social lounge," was to slap my forehead and gasp, "I could have had a (popular vegetable-based beverage)." Actually, that's the polite version. The lounge atmosphere of the California marijuana scam was clearly known long before Maine advocates decided to emulate it. Cannabinoids do have some medical applications, and several products have been available for quite some time through the existing pharmaceutical distribution system. Research to develop others is ongoing. This is the manner in which numerous other nature-based medicines originated, but it is the only one I know of where a psychoactive natural substance is used in its raw form. [continues 186 words]
Social Amenities Planned for a New Medical Marijuana Clinic Encourage Overuse. On two occasions, Maine voters have authorized medical marijuana for people with serious illnesses. This was not a vote to legalize recreational marijuana use, but an attempt to treat the herb as much like a medicine as possible. Operators of the newest dispensary in Portland should keep that in mind and not take advantage of Mainers' compassion. Unfortunately, that's not what they are advertising. The website of Wellness Connection of Maine advertises a place for patients to relax near a fireplace and drink tea while eating food laced with marijuana. It's a setting that sounds more like a cocktail lounge than a dispensary, and it is not what voters were promised. A social setting encourages people to take more marijuana than they need, and creates a risk to the public if over-medicated users try to get into their cars and drive home after a treatment. [continues 223 words]
Dispensary Will See Patients Full Time Starting Next Month HALLOWELL -- A city medical marijuana dispensary started seeing patients by appointment before Christmas and plans to open full time next month. Wellness Connection of Maine's 2,400-square-foot dispensary, one floor above the Liberal Cup on Water Street, is scheduled to open by January's end, according to the firm's executive director, Becky DeKeuster. Under state law, the dispensary will be the only one allowed in Kennebec County. Earlier this year, DeKeuster had hoped the dispensary would be open by the fall. Renovations have held up the Hallowell dispensary's opening, according to Jane Lane, senior vice president with Philip W. Johnston Associates, a Boston-based public affairs firm working with Wellness Connection. [continues 507 words]
On two occasions, Maine voters have authorized medical marijuana for people with serious illnesses. This was not a vote to legalize recreational marijuana use, but an attempt to treat the herb as much like a medicine as possible. Operators of the newest dispensary in Portland should keep that in mind and not take advantage of Mainers' compassion. Unfortunately, that's not what they are advertising. The website of Wellness Connection of Maine advertises a place for patients to relax near a fireplace and drink tea, while eating food laced with marijuana. It's a setting that sounds more like a cocktail lounge than a dispensary and it is not what voters were promised. [continues 260 words]
PORTLAND -- A medical marijuana dispensary that's scheduled to open in Portland next month is designed as a California-style wellness center. Its operator is promoting a free coffee and tea bar, acupuncture clinics, support groups, counseling and a "welcoming vapor lounge." The new website of Wellness Connection of Maine says, "Patients are always welcome to relax and socialize near our fireplace, or enjoy a free cup of tea with a friend in our cafe space." The manager of Maine's medical marijuana program says a dispensary with such amenities would violate state regulations aimed at ensuring that dispensaries are places to get medicine for serious illnesses, not places to socialize. [continues 528 words]
PORTLAND -- A medical marijuana dispensary that's scheduled to open in Portland next month is designed as a California-style wellness center. Its operator is promoting a free coffee and tea bar, acupuncture clinics, support groups, counseling and a "welcoming vapor lounge." The new website of Wellness Connection of Maine says, "Patients are always welcome to relax and socialize near our fireplace, or enjoy a free cup of tea with a friend in our cafe space." The manager of Maine's medical marijuana program says a dispensary with such amenities would violate state regulations aimed at ensuring that dispensaries are places to get medicine for serious illnesses, not places to socialize. [continues 529 words]
But Some Fear Plans by Portland's New Marijuana Outlet May Instead Create a Hangout. PORTLAND - A medical marijuana dispensary that's scheduled to open in Portland next month is designed as a California-style wellness center. Its operator is promoting a free coffee and tea bar, acupuncture clinics, support groups, counseling and a "welcoming vapor lounge." The new website of Wellness Connection of Maine says, "Patients are always welcome to relax and socialize near our fireplace, or enjoy a free cup of tea with a friend in our cafe space." [continues 565 words]
The Sanford Council has skirted an application to site a methadone clinic in town by instead approving a moratorium on such facilities. We think this was an unprofessional move by the council to prevent a business from opening within its borders. Although it may be legal, it seemed like an underhanded move to wait for an application to decide the ordinance is not sufficient. Many people may not like having a methadone clinic or marijuana dispensary in their town, but the fact is, those facilities are allowed under law and unless a town prohibits or regulates such places, they should not put up barriers once an application is in hand. [continues 412 words]
The third week in July, Republican Gov. Rick Perry said that the U.S. Constitution - whose 10th Amendment limits federal power - gives states the right to decide on such matters as abortion and gay marriage. The fourth week in July, the Texan recanted. He now supports a federal ban on abortion and gay marriage. Social conservatives told him they didn't cotton to giving states the right to defy their views on things they care about. Perhaps it's time for progressives to pick up the freedom banner that was so quickly dropped in the mud of Republican primary politics. Here are examples of intrusive state and federal government, ripped from the headlines: [continues 531 words]
AUGUSTA - Maine's Department of Health and Human Services approved financing for the state's largest medical marijuana nonprofit this week, paving the way for the opening of four dispensaries for which it holds exclusive state licenses. A letter dated Wednesday from Catherine Cobb, the director of DHHS' Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, to Northeast Patients Group Executive Director Becky DeKeuster, was provided to the Kennebec Journal by Stephen Langsdorf, an Augusta-based attorney representing Northeast in a lawsuit against its former financial backer. [continues 170 words]
AUGUSTA -- An attorney for Maine's largest medical marijuana nonprofit group says it has secured $1.6 million in financing in a deal that will be formally delivered to the state today. If approved, the deal will enable Northeast Patients Group to open its first dispensary within a month, according to Daniel Walker, a Portland lawyer who represents the struggling dispensary group. Walker filed documents Aug. 4 with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services naming The Farmacy Institute for Wellness and retired NBA basketball player Cuttino Mobley as partners in The Wellness and Pain Management Connection LLC. [continues 629 words]
An editorial calling for federal rescheduling of cannabis was misguided and misinformed. In regards to "Our View: While cannabis is illegal, dispensaries will struggle" (Aug. 8), the suggestion that marijuana be reclassified to a lower schedule, like prescription drugs, is misguided and misinformed. Marijuana is a Schedule I drug, which reflects the facts that it is widely abused, that it has no approved medical use by the Food and Drug Administration, and that it lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision. [continues 167 words]
The Tension Between State and Federal Law Prevents Maine From Fulfilling Its Vision. Don't expect a sudden influx of out-of-state cash to fix what's ailing the company that aspires to be Maine's biggest dispenser of medical marijuana. Augusta-based Northeast Patients group has lost two of its board members, including state representative and former Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion. State officials and patients are expressing doubts about whether they can trust the company that came forward last year looking like the most professional outfit around, but now is looking a little fly-by-night, needing 11th-hour financing from a hastily created Delaware corporation. [continues 256 words]
AUGUSTA -- Marijuana is known for making some people feel good and making others angry, particularly when it comes to debates about whether or not to make the plant available to the ill and the injured. But the plant becomes much less exciting when the topic turns to how it grows. "I think it's important, when you grow something, to know something about it," said Ray Logan, instructor for the fourth Marijuana State University medical marijuana grow class, held Saturday at the Senator Inn. [continues 594 words]
Ray Logan's Marijuana State University Draws Students To Augusta AUGUSTA -- Marijuana is known for making some people feel good and making others angry, particularly when it comes to debates about whether or not to make the plant available to the ill and the injured. But the plant becomes much less exciting when the topic turns to how it grows. "I think it's important, when you grow something, to know something about it," said Ray Logan, instructor for the fourth Marijuana State University medical marijuana grow class, held Saturday at the Senator Inn. [continues 593 words]
AUGUSTA - Maine's largest medical marijuana dispensary unexpectedly disclosed that the president of a prominent California dispensary chain is the point person for a new financing deal it says will allow them to open its first Maine dispensary "within weeks." The Wellness and Pain Management Connection LLC was named as the financier of an eight-year, $1.6 million loan, which, according to documents provided to the Kennebec Journal by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, will be paid back at 8.5 percent interest per year. [continues 193 words]
Winthrop Woman Second to Step Down From Panel Recently AUGUSTA -- Another board member has quit the group that holds the right to operate half Maine's medical marijuana dispensaries. In a July 20 email to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Northeast Patients Group Executive Director Becky DeKeuster wrote that Faith Benedetti, of Winthrop, had stepped down from the board of directors that week. Benedetti did not return messages left Tuesday on her cell phone and Facebook page. DeKeuster didn't return a message left on her phone. [continues 597 words]
AUGUSTA -- Ryan Begin was checking a report of an improvised explosive device in Iskandariya, Iraq., on Aug. 1, 2004. Then the U.S. Marine Corps corporal saw one. It detonated, blowing apart his right arm. More than 30 surgeries later, Begin said he has regained some use of his arm. But the psychological damage has taken a harsher toll, including drug addiction and violence. Begin told doctors in federal health centers high-grade medical marijuana was his only hope for tamping down the innumerable nightmares, flashbacks and fears that followed him from the battlefield. [continues 1576 words]
I've written about the medical marijuana issue several times, even spoken before the city council on the issue of clinic location. This week's news that Rebecca DeKeuster of Northeast Patient Group being the target of a lawsuit by her former employer could not have come at a worse time for the proposed Portland clinic. As usual, timing is everything. Looking over the initial application with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services for the proposed clinic, you could be initially wowed by the "sunshine and unicorns" factor. There are even budget projections based on the clinics first partial year of operations, dated July of LAST year to June of this year. [continues 707 words]
The Issue of Out-Of-State Funding Is Causing Some Controversy As Maine's Industry Gets Off the Ground. AUGUSTA - A financing agreement has been finalized between the holder of half of Maine's medical marijuana dispensary licenses and a former professional basketball player. The $2 million agreement between Northeast Patients Group and an organization led by former NBA player Cuttino Mobley comes as Northeast faces a lawsuit by its former California-based backer. The litigation and the deal with Mobley that sparked it have big implications for Maine's fledgling medical marijuana industry. Northeast holds exclusive state licenses to operate dispensaries in Maine's most populous markets: Greater Portland, Kennebec County and the Bangor area, as well as Thomaston. [continues 577 words]
Ex-NBA player, Maine marijuana group to partner AUGUSTA -- A financing agreement has been finalized between the holder of half of Maine's medical marijuana dispensary licenses and a former professional basketball player. The $2 million agreement between Northeast Patients Group and an organization led by former NBA player -- and former Maine Central Institute player -- Cuttino Mobley comes as Northeast faces a lawsuit from its former California-based backer. The litigation and the deal with Mobley that sparked it have big implications for Maine's fledgling medical marijuana industry: Northeast holds exclusive state licenses to operate dispensaries in Maine's most populous markets: Portland, Kennebec County and the Bangor area, as well as Thomaston. [continues 1228 words]
AUGUSTA -- A financing agreement has been finalized between the holder of half of Maine's medical marijuana dispensary licenses and a former professional basketball player. The $2 million agreement between Northeast Patients Group and an organization led by former NBA player Cuttino Mobley comes as Northeast faces a lawsuit from its former California-based backer. The litigation and the deal with Mobley that sparked it have big implications for Maine's fledgling medical marijuana industry: Northeast holds exclusive state licenses to operate dispensaries in Maine's most populous markets: Portland, Kennebec County and the Bangor area, as well as Thomaston. [continues 1229 words]
Driving While Impaired Is a Crime, but How About Driving While Being Medicated? Recent court cases involving deaths allegedly caused by people driving under the influence of marijuana have led to a heightened awareness of the issue, which some sources have linked to the increasing acceptance of medical marijuana. In one of the cases, a California driver pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while another driver there was found not guilty of that charge because the effects of the drug found in his system couldn't be proved in court. [continues 371 words]
Recent court cases involving deaths allegedly caused by people driving under the influence of marijuana have led to a heightened awareness about the issue, which some sources have linked to the increasing acceptance of medical marijuana. In one of the cases, a California driver pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while another driver there was found not guilty of that charge because the effects of the drug found in his system couldn't be proved in court. In alcohol-related offenses, a legal blood-alcohol standard says that any adult with more than 0.08 percent is legally drunk (lower standards apply to minors in some states). To determine that, officers can apply tests to drivers stopped on suspicion of OUI. Come up with an 0.08 level or higher and you're busted, period. [continues 309 words]
Northeast Patients Group, which holds permits to open medical marijuana dispensaries in Portland, Bangor and elsewhere in Maine, is being sued by its former financial backer in California. In court filings, Berkeley Patients Group alleges Augusta-based Northeast Patients Group failed to pay back more than $630,000 in loans used for salaries and start-up funds during the successful 2010 permitting process. Northeast's chief executive Becky DeKeuster is also named in the lawsuit, which was filed July 6 in Cumberland County Superior Court. DeKeuster, who severed ties with Berkeley in February, is accused of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and disclosing trade secrets to a competitor. She declined to be interviewed yesterday. [continues 744 words]
Inside Maine
