Arkansas picks Boston firm to rank medical marijuana applicants

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Arkansas picked a Boston-based consultant to grade the 200-plus applications submitted for the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary licenses.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission decided to outsource dispensary license scoring to a third-party group after a controversial cultivation licensing process earlier this year.

Public Consulting Group was one of just two companies to respond to a request the state issued to 30 companies it believed could grade the cannabis-vending proposals, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The need for scoring help arose in July after commissioners graded 83 proposals for five available growing licenses and a wave of unsuccessful applicants then alleged commissioner bias, scoring errors and regulators’ failure to verify claims made in applications.

Public Consulting Group must submit the final scores 30 days after receiving the applications.

Associated Press