Private money at odds with public interest in CT marijuana debatePosted by On

mark pazniokas :: ctmirror.org

Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford.

J.D. DeMatteo is a wealthy investor about to profit from the $100 million sale of Theraplant, the first of Connecticut’s four licensed producers of medical marijuana. Doug McCrory is a state senator and educator from Hartford, one of the nation’s poorest cities.

From starkly different vantages, both saw opportunity in the prospect of the state legalizing the sale of recreational cannabis to anyone 21 or older, exponentially increasing a market now limited to the 54,245 holders of medical marijuana cards.

DeMatteo’s interest in getting one of the first licenses to produce marijuana for the recreational market coincided with McCrory’s desire to open the industry to “social equity” applicants from poor and urban neighborhoods disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

After talks with DeMatteo, McCrory insisted colleagues insert a provision at the bottom of a 297-page cannabis legalization bill. The addition was intended to allow DeMatteo to jump what is expected to be a very long line for a cultivation license — if he took on and mentored a social equity partner.

“There was no quid pro quo. It was a talk about the future and how he could participate and how a minority member could participate. There is no nefarious side to it,” said John F. Droney Jr., a lawyer who represents Theraplant and DeMatteo.

Whether the provision was the result of altruism, opportunism, or a bit…

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mark pazniokas :: ctmirror.org

Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford.

J.D. DeMatteo is a wealthy investor about to profit from the $100 million sale of Theraplant, the first of Connecticut’s four licensed producers of medical marijuana. Doug McCrory is a state senator and educator from Hartford, one of the nation’s poorest cities.

From starkly different vantages, both saw opportunity in the prospect of the state legalizing the sale of recreational cannabis to anyone 21 or older, exponentially increasing a market now limited to the 54,245 holders of medical marijuana cards.

DeMatteo’s interest in getting one of the first licenses to produce marijuana for the recreational market coincided with McCrory’s desire to open the industry to “social equity” applicants from poor and urban neighborhoods disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

After talks with DeMatteo, McCrory insisted colleagues insert a provision at the bottom of a 297-page cannabis legalization bill. The addition was intended to allow DeMatteo to jump what is expected to be a very long line for a cultivation license — if he took on and mentored a social equity partner.

“There was no quid pro quo. It was a talk about the future and how he could participate and how a minority member could participate. There is no nefarious side to it,” said John F. Droney Jr., a lawyer who represents Theraplant and DeMatteo.

Whether the provision was the result of altruism, opportunism, or a bit…



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