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Judge Griffen rules medical marijuana cultivators rankings 'null and void'

Judge Wendell Griffen has ruled that the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission's ranking of potential medical marijuana cultivators is "null and void."

Judge Wendell Griffen has ruled that the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission's ranking of potential medical marijuana cultivators is "null and void."

Naturalis Health, LLC filed the lawsuit after finishing outside of the top five in the rankings, claiming the commission acted in a "arbitrary and capricious" way when grading potential cultivators.

"We absolutely would be in the top five based on the strengths in our application," said Patrick Murphy, in-house counsel and co-owner of Naturalis Health. "We were the only one that I know of that had a current grow facility."

In his ruling, Griffen stated that Travis Story and Carlos Roman, M.D., two medical marijuana commissioners, violated the "'appearance of bias' legal standard for administrative decision-making."

"As such, the cultivation facility scoring, ranking, and licensing process in which they participated was a departure from the fundamental fairness required to satisfy due process of law," Griffen ruled.

The ruling said that Story served as an attorney for two people with "ownership interests" in Osage Creek Cultivation, which finished in the top five of the rankings. And Roman was a physician who referred patients to Dr. Scott Schlesinger, who has "ownership interest" in the Natural State Medicinals Cultivation, which also placed in the top five.

Griffen said the decision-making and selection process of the commission was "compromised" by Story and Roman's participation in deciding which companies received the cultivation licenses.

"The fact that Dr. Roman scored the cultivation facility application of NSMC...more than 30 points higher than the average score Dr. Roman assigned to other cultivation facility license applicants is certainly enough to create a reasonable suspicion of unfairness, even if it does not establish actual bias," Griffen said.

The ruling also declared that the commission failed to verify that the cultivation facility would be at least 3,000 feet from a public or private school, church, or daycare.

The judge also ruled that sovereign immunity did not apply in this case because "impending actions" by the Medical Marijuana Commission violated the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment which Griffen said "violate due process of law, and are arbitrary and capricious."

"The prospect that Arkansans must now endure more delay before gaining much needed access to locally grown medical marijuana should be unpleasant to anyone concerned about providing relief to people who suffer from serious illnesses," Griffen said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance and Administration said they "respect Judge Griffen's decision." No word yet if the Attorney General's office will appeal the decision to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

We will continue to update this story with more information.

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