A small band of the roughly 57 companies whose marijuana business permits expired on New Year’s Eve filed a lawsuit asking a California state judge to order Los Angeles officials to conduct an appeals process or at least a hearing over their licenses not being renewed.
According to Law360, three licensed businesses – Paradise Factory, the Van Nuys Group, and Caliva Cadinh1 – argued in a court filing submitted Dec. 30 that their permits were wrongly terminated by the city and contended that all had paid their license renewal fees and filed the required paperwork.
The businesses argue that the L.A. Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) did not properly notify them that their licenses were in jeopardy and asserted that the agency “committed a prejudicial abuse of discretion” by not giving all the permit holders in question hearings to appeal the termination of their licenses.
The DCR declined a Marijuana Business Daily request for comment.
MJBizDaily was first to report that roughly 57 unidentified companies were poised to lose their licenses at the end of 2020 with no easy way to reinstate them.
Subsequently, the DCR informed the businesses that no enforcement actions would be taken against them over the expired permits because the L.A. City Council is attempting to rectify the situation and allow the companies in question to continue operations.
However, the licenses lapsed and the businesses in question technically would be operating illegally if they continued doing business as normal until the City Council can deal with the situation.
The DCR to date has rejected a public records request by MJBizDaily in an effort to identify the roughly 57 companies whose licenses are at risk.
The three that filed suit are the only ones to be publicly identified.
