At least three lawsuits have been filed against the state of Ohio by eight medical marijuana companies related to MMJ cultivation permits.
In the latest suit, Ohio ReLeaf claims the Department of Commerce has not commenced appeals hearings on grow licenses and has not responded in a timely fashion to open-records-act requests from the company, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.
ReLeaf, one of 68 applicants that didn’t win a grow license last year, filed an appeal regarding that decision.
The company charges that the state is “trying to ‘run out the clock’” on its appeal so as to simply move forward with the licenses that were issued in November to 24 companies, the newspaper reported.
In December, PharmaCann Ohio sued the state over the licensing process, arguing that a so-called “racial quota” was illegal. Then, in February, another six cultivation permit applicants sued over alleged flaws in the license application scoring process.
Ohio’s MMJ program is scheduled to roll out in September, but it’s possible the launch may be delayed if one or more judges rule that any of these suits have merit.