The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Fort Smith-based River Valley Relief (RVR) in a medical cannabis cultivation license dispute. The court reversed and remanded, with two judges dissenting, a lower court's ruling and vacated a summary judgment against RVR.
Thursday's (April 11) court decision sends the matter back to the Pulaski County Circuit Court.
Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Herb Wright ruled in early November 2023 for a claim by 2600 Holdings that the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission (MMC) erred in granting RVR the license in July 2020. 2600 Holdings filed a lawsuit in January 2021, asking the court to disqualify RVR and grant the license to 2600 or provide other relief through the Arkansas Administrative Procedures Act. In his ruling, Judge Wright said 2600 has proven it should be given relief, and the MMC acted outside its authority – ultra vires – in granting the license to RVR.
2600 attorneys alleged that MMC illegally granted RVR owner Storm Nolan a license during a second round of awarding cultivation licenses. The action was illegal because the incorporation in Nolan's first application was no longer valid, and the proposed center was too close to the Sebastian County Juvenile Detention Center, according to the complaint filed by 2600. The law regulating Arkansas' medical cannabis requires centers to be at least 3,000 feet away from a school, church or daycare.
Nolan and his attorneys rebutted what they claimed were key erroneous findings in Wright's order. One was that the original RVR application was within 3,000 feet of a school, which would violate MMC rules for a cultivation center. The original location was within 2,400 feet of the Sebastian County Juvenile Detention Center, which is not a school.
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