Storm Nolan, the Fort Smith hotelier who co-owns the legally embattled River Valley Relief Cultivation, made some points to Whispers last week about an appeal he's made to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
His goal is to save his medical cannabis license, which the Medical Marijuana Commission moved to revoke after a circuit judge found it was improperly granted.
Nolan faulted Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert T. Wright for citing the cultivation's site's proximity to a "school" as a violation of licensing rules. The institution is the Sebastian County Juvenile Detention Center. "Amendment 98 and the MMC rules do not recognize a juvenile detention center as a school," Nolan told Arkansas Business in an email.
Last year, the state Supreme Court reversed a similar decision Wright had issued in 2022, finding that he had erred in denying Nolan's motion to intervene in the case. The justices sent the case back to Wright, and he again ruled against Nolan in December. The plaintiff in the first lawsuit, as well as the modified case now under appeal, is 2600 Holdings, a cultivation license rival. The plaintiffs in the initial lawsuit were the state and its Department of Finance & Administration, which oversees the MMC. The amended complaint also named Nolan as a defendant.
Read more at: Arkansas Business