AR Times: “The state Medical Marijuana Commission can’t issue the final two dispensary licenses until a lawsuit alleging racial bias in the application process can be fully heard, according to a temporary restraining order issued by Circuit Judge Alice Gray on Tuesday.
The commission had been on track to issue the remaining licenses this spring after it initiated a process last year to change the rules for considering expired applications. The Arkansas Legislative Council is expected to approve the rule changes next month, allowing expired applications to be considered, commission spokesman Scott Hardin said.
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The lawsuit, filed by a company called Absolute Essence, claims that the process for selecting applicants and awarding licenses was arbitrary, without any rational basis and plagued by unlawful and inconsistent procedures. The suit, which alleges racial basis in the commission’s processes, says the commission did not “evenhandedly and uniformly apply its own rules as between black-owned and non-black-owned.”
According to the suit, the dispensary application filed by the plaintiff, a 100% black-owned company, was not scored appropriately and should have received a higher score. The lawsuit provides a litany of alleged improprieties in the scoring process.”