A Florida medical marijuana company hasn’t given up on an attempt to start selling weed alongside convenience stores, after an administrative law judge sided with state health regulators who rejected the plan.
Green Thumb Industries, which operates RISE dispensaries in Florida, filed a notice Thursday saying it will ask the 1st District Court of Appeal to review Administrative Law Judge Joshua Pratt’s Jan. 7 ruling.
As is common, the notice did not include details about the appeal. An October 2022 news release said the company — commonly known as GTI — intended to launch a “test and learn phase” of the plan with 10 dispensaries adjacent to Circle K’s in various parts of Florida beginning in January 2023.
Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use Director Christopher Kimball, however, nixed the company’s requests for dispensaries in St. Petersburg, Orlando and Ocala, saying the plans did not comply with state law for a variety of reasons.
Lawyers for GTI filed an administrative petition accusing Kimball of unlawfully applying “unadopted rules” in denying the requests.
The petition pointed to other medical marijuana companies’ dispensaries near or adjacent to convenience stores or gas stations, which were approved by Kimball and his predecessor. Pratt this month issued a ruling that supported Kimball and said the director made his decisions “on a case-by-case basis.”
News about the potential partnership between Circle K and GTI sparked national headlines and caused ripples at the Office of Medical Marijuana Use, which regulates pot companies.
Meanwhile, GTI has another case pending at the state Division of Administrative Hearings focused on the denial of a proposed Ocala dispensary, which would be in a building separate from an adjacent Circle K.
The pending petition, in part, questioned state health officials’ position that locating a dispensary adjacent to a convenience store would increase risks of crime.
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