[[“value”:”STORM NOLAN (file photo)
The owner of a Fort Smith medical marijuana cultivation facility said he plans to appeal a Pulaski County judge’s ruling that orders state regulators to take steps to fix the error it made when it granted him a license.
Bennett “Storm” Nolan, the majority owner of the cultivation facility, said he intends to appeal the ruling Circuit Judge Herb Wright issued Monday. Wright found that the state Medical Marijuana Commission wrongfully issued a license in 2020 for Nolan to operate River Valley Relief Cultivation. Wright’s order said the commission should take “all steps necessary to remedy” the situation.
Wright found that the commission had acted unreasonably, unlawfully and capriciously when it awarded the license to Nolan despite problems with his application.
Nolan said Tuesday he still has his license and intends to continue operating the cultivation facility as long as the license is still in hand.
“We are disappointed and disagree with the ruling,” Nolan said. “We will continue to defend the license that was lawfully issued to us by the state of Arkansas.”
Commission spokesman Scott Hardin said the commission will discuss the lawsuit at its regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 9.
Wright’s ruling marks the second time he’s ruled that River Valley Relief’s license was awarded in error. In 2022, Wright issued a similar ruling against the cultivator and denied Nolan’s request to join the case. In April, the Arkansas Supreme Court agreed with Nolan’s argument that he should have been allowed to become a party and sent the case back down to Wright.
On Monday, Wright ruled on the nearly identical case, this time with Nolan included as a party.
The case revolves around which applicant should have received one of the state’s eight licenses to cultivate medical marijuana.
After Arkansas voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana in 2016, a scoring of the cultivation applicants placed River Valley Relief in seventh place. A rival applicant, 2600 Holdings, scored ninth place. When the commission issued the first five licenses in 2018, neither River Valley nor 2600 Holdings received a license. But River Valley was in line to receive one of the remaining three licenses, while 2600 Holdings remained outside the top eight scorers.
In 2020, the commission issued the final three licenses, including a license to River Valley Relief. The next year, 2600 Holdings, which is also known as Southern Roots, argued in court that River Valley’s application was flawed. After the initial cultivation licenses were issued, Nolan dissolved the legal entity that had appeared on his application, a problem the plaintiffs said made River Valley ineligible.
2600 Holdings also argued that the location River Valley proposed in its application was not at least 3,000 feet from a school, as required by the medical marijuana amendment. The proposed location was near the Sebastian County Juvenile Detention Center, which 2600 Holdings argued met the definition of a school.
Doralee Chandler, director of the Arkansas Beverage Control Division at the time, dismissed complaints against River Valley’s application, 2600 Holdings said.
On Monday, Wright agreed with the plaintiff on those matters as he had in his previous ruling:
An effort was clearly made by the MMC to give Nolan thread to stitch up the holes in the RVRC application. Whether that was fair or unfair to any of the applicants, it was at minimum an unconstitutional and ultra vires act. The application should have been rejected pursuant to the Constitution and the MMC Rules, and when the application was ultimately accepted for a license in the second round, it should have been denied because RVRC’s dissolution rendered the application void.
Wright said he did not have the authority to strip a license from a grower or the authority to grant a license to someone else. He left that up to the marijuana commission, although he said the commission should remedy the violations it had committed.
Abtin Mehdizedagan, the attorney for plaintiff 2600 Holdings, celebrated the ruling in a statement to the Arkansas Times:
Judge Wright’s order again confirms what the Constitution already says: River Valley disqualified itself from the application process through its own actions—applying from a location too close to a school, and dissolving the applicant entity 14 months before the MMC awarded licenses from the reserve pool. No amount of litigation will change the fact that RVRC is constitutionally incompetent to cultivate marijuana in Arkansas, and while they can choose to appeal, the law and facts are decisive in Southern Roots’ favor. We expect the government to act swiftly in revoking the unconstitutional license and we will not hesitate to seek further relief from the Court if they fail to heed this lawful order. In the meantime, my clients and I join all Arkansans of my good conscience in celebrating this important victory for the rule of law.
“]] Judge Herb Wright said the state Medical Marijuana Commission acted unlawfully when it awarded a license to River Valley Relief Cultivation. Read More
