最新杏吧原创

Virtually nothing in the Missouri Capitol happens that isn鈥檛 fueled by politics and money, or more specifically, money in politics.

It鈥檚 why, for instance, lawmakers held important and serious government accountability hearings on the medical marijuana program, instead of, say, trying to reverse the state鈥檚 inexcusable dropping of 100,000 children from the Medicaid program.

Never mind the poor, sick kids. They don鈥檛 have a group of deep-pocketed donors backing them.

When it comes to money and politics, Fraker knows what he鈥檚 talking about.

In 2015, when he was a state representative, the Republican from Marshfield held off-site utility committee hearings at the private Jefferson City Country Club, with dinner paid for by lobbyists for the companies he was supposed to be regulating. The next year, he sponsored a bill proposing tax credits for individuals who pay initiation dues to join private country clubs.

So, yes, Fraker has some experience in these matters.

But just because his criticism likely has some truth behind it doesn鈥檛 mean the House committee has failed to identify major problems with the implementation of the voter-approved measure by the Department of Health and Senior Services.

In fact, the problems started at the very beginning. One of them in particular holds the key to why all the other potential conflicts of interest identified by lawmakers and journalists and license applicants are so troublesome.

Last summer, when DHSS first sought bids for a company to serve as a third-party 鈥渂lind鈥� scorer of the applications for marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities, no companies responded. So the state made changes. One of those key changes was that instead of the state assigning a randomly generated facility number that would make sure the application scorers did not know which company they were evaluating, the bid allowed the applying companies to generate their own facility numbers.

Many of the companies that were ultimately awarded bids, did so with a clear plan of action.

For instance, a Perryville company called Archimedes Medical Holdings LLC chose its numbers as ARCH1811 and ARCH2811. The company, which also donated to Gov. Mike Parson, received both cultivation licenses. So did FUJM LLC, another Perryville company that gave to Parson. It鈥檚 鈥渂lind鈥� scoring identification number? FUJM1811. There鈥檚 nothing particularly blind about that.

BeLeaf Medical, the 最新杏吧原创 company that won five dispensary licenses, chose as the first four letters for all of its applications, BLMC. Agri-Genesis, which won two cultivation licenses, used AGGE. CPC-Missouri, the company that lawmakers believe has a conflict of interest with Oaksterdam University, which is involved in the third-party scoring collaborative, used CPCS at the beginning of all of its facility application numbers. Feelz Good Green went with FGGP.

Obviously some companies didn鈥檛 get the memo. They produced randomly generated numbers that began with a mix of letters and numbers that had nothing to do with their applications. Perhaps they failed to seek the advice of Samaara Robbins, one of the state鈥檚 application scorers who says on her resume she has worked for Canna Advisors, a marijuana consultant that helped its clients obtain 29 licenses in Missouri.

More than 800 appeals of denials have been filed by companies claiming disparities in the scoring, or potential conflicts of interest in the awarding of medical marijuana licenses.

Is it any wonder?

The state, of course, says there is nothing to see here. The change to the original RFP was made, said DHSS spokeswoman Lisa Cox, because it would have been 鈥渋nappropriate鈥� for the state to alter the documents by putting those numbers on thousands of pages of documents after they were received by the state. Therefore, the applicants themselves made sure their individual numbers were placed on every page of their applications.

鈥淎pplicants assigning their own number did not weaken the integrity of the blind scoring process,鈥� Cox says. 鈥淎ny allegations to the contrary are based on a lack of understanding of the process.鈥�

That sounds like a matter for lawmakers to determine. And now, maybe, the courts.

Last week, one applicant, Sarcoxie Nursery Cultivation Center LLC, filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against the ongoing licensing program, including the transfer of ownership of licenses, some of which, the lawsuit alleges, were obtained by 鈥渟traw鈥� buyers.

The lawsuit alleges that the current licensing process 鈥渄efies logic and the law,鈥� and it calls it 鈥渃omplex, opaque, inappropriate and unlawful.鈥�

Perhaps Fraker could offer an olive branch as the controversy continues. Maybe his former donors 鈥� like lobbyist Steve Tilley, who is at the heart of conflict questions regarding Missouri鈥檚 burgeoning pot business 鈥� and various House donors could pay for the next government accountability meeting, or the next court hearing, to be in the more comfortable environs of the Jefferson City Country Club over a nice dinner.

That鈥檚 JCCC, for short.