Excessive Court docket Stays Marijuana Cultivator’s License Revocation | Arkansas Enterprise Information

Fort Smith hotelier and medical hashish cultivator Storm Nolan obtained a reprieve for his imperiled state marijuana license Thursday when his attraction to the Arkansas Supreme Court docket yielded an order putting a maintain on a license revocation order issued by the state on Monday.

The Supreme Court docket promised a fast evaluate of an attraction by Nolan’s River Valley Aid Cultivation, which had its license pulled by the director of the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Management Division within the wake of a ruling in Pulaski County Circuit Court docket that discovered that the allow had been improperly issued. Circuit Court docket Decide Herbert Wright final month ordered the state to proceed shortly with revoking Nolan’s license and granting it as an alternative to a competitor, lawsuit plaintiff 2600 Holdings of Little Rock, doing enterprise as Southern Roots Cultivation.

The allow below scrutiny was the final of eight medical marijuana cultivation licenses approved by the Arkansas constitutional modification that legalized medicinal hashish in 2016. 2600 Holdings argued that irregularities in River Valley’s license software ought to have disqualified it, and that Southern Roots — the next-highest-scoring applicant within the choice course of — ought to have been granted the license.

Wright agreed, discovering that the state went to uncommon lengths to grant the license to Nolan regardless of a discrepancy within the names of the company he listed on his software and a distinct however equally named company that’s rising the hashish.

Nolan and his legal professionals, together with Joseph R. Falasco of Little Rock, moved for the excessive court docket to supersede Wright’s ruling and to expedite its evaluate of his attraction. With out remark, the justices granted the movement Thursday.

The attraction argued that Nolan and his firm had been “indispensable events” within the 2600 Holdings despite the fact that they weren’t defendants. The go well with had been filed in opposition to the state’s marijuana regulation companies, together with the ABC, which oversees enforcement of guidelines on cultivators and dispensaries. The opposite defendants had been the Medical Marijuana Fee and the ABC’s dad or mum company, the Arkansas Division of Finance and Administration. Greater than 80,000 Arkansans have medical marijuana playing cards.

Nolan had sought to intervene shortly earlier than Wright granted a abstract judgment in 2600 Holdings’ favor, however the choose stated he was too late asking to hitch a case that had been within the authorized system for a number of years. Nolan’s attraction argued that he ought to have had an opportunity to current his case earlier than Decide Wright.

The license revocation determination Monday by ABC Director Doralee Chandler was instantly appealed to the ABC Board, which is scheduled to fulfill Dec. 21. Nolan is free to proceed rising and promoting marijuana to medicinal dispensaries till that date.

The excessive court docket stated the attraction’s argument that Nolan was an indispensable get together to the case may come up once more months from now in an attraction of the ABC revocation, which is open to attraction in circuit court docket. “Within the curiosity of readability for the state companies concerned and the continuity of the medical marijuana provide pending decision of this difficulty,” the court docket promised an expedited evaluate course of.

Nolan informed Arkansas Enterprise he would don’t have any remark till he obtained some clarifications from the ABC. State spokesman Scott Hardin didn’t instantly reply to questions concerning the present standing of Nolan’s license.

In testimony earlier than Chandler on Monday, Nolan stated he and his brother had invested greater than $8 million in River Valley’s hashish cultivation middle close to the Fort Smith airport, and he has stated greater than $6 million value of marijuana stands to go to waste if his license is pulled. He has additionally argued that some 75 staff can be put out of labor at Christmastime.