Back in June the Massachusetts Department of Public Health crept forward in the medical marijuana dispensary licensing process by granting provisional certification to 11 establishments to set up shop. One of the candidates who made it through each step, except for this particular stage was former Congressman William Delahunt who aimed to open up three dispensaries of his own.
According to Wicked Local Plymouth, Delahunt issued a statement Tuesday evening alleging that the DPH, which says Delahunt and his constituents made misrepresentations on applications for his Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts, made mistakes in allowing those 11 dispensary applicants to advance.
“Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts may have erred in being overly transparent regarding our outreach to local officials, which resulted in confusion on the part of the Department of Public Health,” the statement reads. “Our interpretation of the question was that we were required to list all discussions with local officials, regardless of whether we were seeking their support or not.”
It came to light early in the convoluted and questionable process that Delahunt has direct ties to DPH Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett and has communicated with Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray on the issue which, for the sake of the utmost transparency, should either have been brought to light sooner or disqualified his application much earlier on.
“At no time did we imply or intend to imply that MMM had sought the support of the senate president,” the statement continues. “MMM never asked for her support and never stated that it had her support.”
In essence, the DPH contends that the former U.S. Representative’s interactions with the likes of Murray, without having any semblance of a recommendation or otherwise – at least from Delahunt’s perspective – is enough to cry foul.
Though Delahunt makes a solid point in his own right that his encounter with Murray was fleeting, the dispensary application process at this point cannot afford any more scrutiny. Since the process began it’s been riddled with controversial practices and ambiguous guidelines, from scoring applications best suited for a license to allowing a dispensary to move on in the process, despite having lower scores than one that’s been disqualified.
Given the number of gears turning in this slow-moving machine, it almost comes as no surprise that an air of dubiousness has settled over it. Perhaps you’ve heard the old adage “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.” That certainly seems to be the case here as in Massachusetts, where medical marijuana is still being hashed out, places like Colorado and Washington open their doors to the recreational variety without even so much as a whisper of malfeasance.
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