The General
New Member
Since they won the Super Bowl, members of the 1985 Chicago Bears have made second careers out of promoting apple-pie products like McDonald's, Coca-Cola and G.I. Joe. Now, they can add a more countercultural item to the menu: medical marijuana. Emery Moorehead, former tight end for that once-dominant franchise, is part of a business team hoping to sell cannabis under the new state law that legalizes it. Moorehead plans to direct community relations for a group of investors seeking to open a marijuana dispensary in his native Evanston – one of 369 businesses that have applied to run medical pot retail stores or growing warehouses in Illinois.
But while people like Moorehead are seeking publicity for their proposals, the state is deciding entirely in secret who will get potentially lucrative operating licenses. Even the names of applicants – and the names of those who will judge and rank the applications – are being withheld. By law, medical marijuana business applications are confidential and exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act. Now, one of the most vocal critics of the secrecy of the licensing process is about to take oversight of it: Bruce Rauner.
The Republican governor-elect has criticized the process as "rigged." He has proposed disclosing the applicants' financial information and selling the operating licenses for 21 growing warehouses and 60 retail stores to the highest qualified bidders. That would require a rewriting of the law, which could prove difficult, since Democrats control the legislature and the licensing process has already begun.
Regulatory attorneys and a watchdog group say a solution may be found in the handling of another industry that emerged from the black market: casino gambling. The state law that allowed riverboats in 1990 initially kept license applications secret, according to former Illinois Gaming Board attorneys Donna More and William Bogot. Following a public outcry, state lawmakers changed the law to require disclosure of basic information about the applicants, including investors' names, addresses, prior licensing or financial problems and political contributions.
More and Bogot, who now counsel casinos and medical marijuana clients, suggested that the casino law could provide a model for making the pot licensing process more transparent. The gaming board initially required the disclosure as a policy before it became law, said the attorneys.
"There are a lot of similarities between gaming and medical marijuana," Bogot said. Both activities are illegal except as prescribed by law, he pointed out, and where they are authorized, both are highly regulated through the application process, and regulators must decide how much of that information to make public. Moorehead, for one, appreciates how high the stakes are for those trying to gain a foothold in a potentially massive new industry.
"This could be like the tech boom of new business that the 1990s had," said Moorehead, who recently retired as a real estate agent. "The ground floor is very important, and we want to be out there first." Moorehead said he knows of one former teammate who uses medical marijuana in another state, and would consider it himself for a disorder that can cause muscle weakness. The marijuana business applications, which were due in September, run hundreds of pages and are very detailed, requiring owners' names, fingerprints, resumes and tax returns for three years. But so far they're all secret. While all states keep private the identities of medical marijuana patients, and many do not release business applicant information, Illinois' secrecy on behalf of business applicants is in marked contrast to at least one other state.
Massachusetts, which is also implementing a new medical marijuana law, lists all its business applications online, along with the evaluation scores that determine who gets operating licenses. After the state initially awarded 20 dispensary licenses, nearly half were later rejected after the media reported misrepresentations, financial irregularities and conflicts of interest.
Former state lawmaker Susan Garrett, head of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said the Massachusetts experience shows why transparency is so important. "It doesn't make any sense to keep this information out of the public eye," she said. The law could easily be amended to provide more disclosure, while keeping personal and proprietary information confidential, she said. In Illinois, Department of Public Health officials say they are considering what information they will release. "We are committed to transparency and are working to determine what information we can release without violating the law," spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said via email.
The sponsor of the law, state Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, said the applications were kept secret – with identifying information blacked out even to the judges who are scoring the proposals – to ensure that the evaluators don't know who has political connections. "My motives were to keep the potential for cronyism out of the process," he said.
Lang would be open to publishing application information after the licenses are awarded but said disclosing only some information during the process would unfairly tar people who might have political connections but also have the best business proposals. Regulators are reviewing the applications, seeking missing information, and will score them based on factors such as security and business plans, financial requirements and community benefits. The health department will release the names of those evaluating the applications after the selection process concludes but will keep them secret until then "to prevent undue influence that could undermine the process," Arnold added.
State officials hope to name the license winners by the end of the year. With time needed to equip warehouses and start a three- to four-month growth cycle, it's likely to be at least spring before any product is available. About 8,000 patients have started the online application process, but only about 230 have been approved so far. Patients must get a doctor's recommendation for marijuana to treat any of about three dozen qualifying medical conditions, and must submit fingerprints to pass a criminal background check.
Regardless of what information about business applicants is released, one other aspect of the new industry is likely to remain secret. State law and regulators are silent on how businesses will get their first plants or seeds to start their crops, and marijuana remains illegal under federal law, so entrepreneurs say will likely have to import from out of state on a "don't ask, don't tell" basis. Some names of those who want to get in on Illinois' fledgling medical marijuana industry have been made public through local zoning applications. Chicago released the names of its applicants, who included a former strip club owner and an aide in the Clinton White House.
Yet many other would-be medical marijuana purveyors seem happy to stay behind the cloak of anonymity the state has granted them. Not so for investor Larry King, who owned a medical marijuana dispensary in Long Beach, Calif., before coming home to propose the Evanston Wellness Center dispensary with Moorehead and others. King argued that applicants' names and backgrounds should be made public so the public can judge what expertise they have. He has touted his group's ties to the local area, seemingly hoping that – along with having a Super Bowl Bear on board – might give them an edge. "I want to be out there to alleviate fears and concerns in the community," King said. "I would be suspect of any applicants who would have any reason not to want to be known by the public."
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Chicagotribune.com
Author: Robert McCoppin
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Medical marijuana licensing proceeds in secret - Chicago Tribune
But while people like Moorehead are seeking publicity for their proposals, the state is deciding entirely in secret who will get potentially lucrative operating licenses. Even the names of applicants – and the names of those who will judge and rank the applications – are being withheld. By law, medical marijuana business applications are confidential and exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act. Now, one of the most vocal critics of the secrecy of the licensing process is about to take oversight of it: Bruce Rauner.
The Republican governor-elect has criticized the process as "rigged." He has proposed disclosing the applicants' financial information and selling the operating licenses for 21 growing warehouses and 60 retail stores to the highest qualified bidders. That would require a rewriting of the law, which could prove difficult, since Democrats control the legislature and the licensing process has already begun.
Regulatory attorneys and a watchdog group say a solution may be found in the handling of another industry that emerged from the black market: casino gambling. The state law that allowed riverboats in 1990 initially kept license applications secret, according to former Illinois Gaming Board attorneys Donna More and William Bogot. Following a public outcry, state lawmakers changed the law to require disclosure of basic information about the applicants, including investors' names, addresses, prior licensing or financial problems and political contributions.
More and Bogot, who now counsel casinos and medical marijuana clients, suggested that the casino law could provide a model for making the pot licensing process more transparent. The gaming board initially required the disclosure as a policy before it became law, said the attorneys.
"There are a lot of similarities between gaming and medical marijuana," Bogot said. Both activities are illegal except as prescribed by law, he pointed out, and where they are authorized, both are highly regulated through the application process, and regulators must decide how much of that information to make public. Moorehead, for one, appreciates how high the stakes are for those trying to gain a foothold in a potentially massive new industry.
"This could be like the tech boom of new business that the 1990s had," said Moorehead, who recently retired as a real estate agent. "The ground floor is very important, and we want to be out there first." Moorehead said he knows of one former teammate who uses medical marijuana in another state, and would consider it himself for a disorder that can cause muscle weakness. The marijuana business applications, which were due in September, run hundreds of pages and are very detailed, requiring owners' names, fingerprints, resumes and tax returns for three years. But so far they're all secret. While all states keep private the identities of medical marijuana patients, and many do not release business applicant information, Illinois' secrecy on behalf of business applicants is in marked contrast to at least one other state.
Massachusetts, which is also implementing a new medical marijuana law, lists all its business applications online, along with the evaluation scores that determine who gets operating licenses. After the state initially awarded 20 dispensary licenses, nearly half were later rejected after the media reported misrepresentations, financial irregularities and conflicts of interest.
Former state lawmaker Susan Garrett, head of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said the Massachusetts experience shows why transparency is so important. "It doesn't make any sense to keep this information out of the public eye," she said. The law could easily be amended to provide more disclosure, while keeping personal and proprietary information confidential, she said. In Illinois, Department of Public Health officials say they are considering what information they will release. "We are committed to transparency and are working to determine what information we can release without violating the law," spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said via email.
The sponsor of the law, state Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, said the applications were kept secret – with identifying information blacked out even to the judges who are scoring the proposals – to ensure that the evaluators don't know who has political connections. "My motives were to keep the potential for cronyism out of the process," he said.
Lang would be open to publishing application information after the licenses are awarded but said disclosing only some information during the process would unfairly tar people who might have political connections but also have the best business proposals. Regulators are reviewing the applications, seeking missing information, and will score them based on factors such as security and business plans, financial requirements and community benefits. The health department will release the names of those evaluating the applications after the selection process concludes but will keep them secret until then "to prevent undue influence that could undermine the process," Arnold added.
State officials hope to name the license winners by the end of the year. With time needed to equip warehouses and start a three- to four-month growth cycle, it's likely to be at least spring before any product is available. About 8,000 patients have started the online application process, but only about 230 have been approved so far. Patients must get a doctor's recommendation for marijuana to treat any of about three dozen qualifying medical conditions, and must submit fingerprints to pass a criminal background check.
Regardless of what information about business applicants is released, one other aspect of the new industry is likely to remain secret. State law and regulators are silent on how businesses will get their first plants or seeds to start their crops, and marijuana remains illegal under federal law, so entrepreneurs say will likely have to import from out of state on a "don't ask, don't tell" basis. Some names of those who want to get in on Illinois' fledgling medical marijuana industry have been made public through local zoning applications. Chicago released the names of its applicants, who included a former strip club owner and an aide in the Clinton White House.
Yet many other would-be medical marijuana purveyors seem happy to stay behind the cloak of anonymity the state has granted them. Not so for investor Larry King, who owned a medical marijuana dispensary in Long Beach, Calif., before coming home to propose the Evanston Wellness Center dispensary with Moorehead and others. King argued that applicants' names and backgrounds should be made public so the public can judge what expertise they have. He has touted his group's ties to the local area, seemingly hoping that – along with having a Super Bowl Bear on board – might give them an edge. "I want to be out there to alleviate fears and concerns in the community," King said. "I would be suspect of any applicants who would have any reason not to want to be known by the public."
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Chicagotribune.com
Author: Robert McCoppin
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Medical marijuana licensing proceeds in secret - Chicago Tribune
