Massachusetts' medical marijuana process is off to a bumpy start. Today, Gov. Deval Patrick tried to assure residents that everything's under control during an appearance on WGBH News' Boston Public Radio.
A month ago, the state granted 20 provisional licenses to medical marijuana dispensaries. At that time, Karen van Unen with the state Public Health Department said the applicants went through multi-stage background checks.
"The selection committee really went through a rigorous process and identified highly qualified applicants we believe will be successful setting up the dispensaries in their communities," she said at the time.
Since then, the Boston Globe reported that at least three applicants who claimed to have support from local politicians actually did not.
On Boston Public Radio, Patrick implied the state would have uncovered the false information before the end of the process and it just released the application to the public too early.
"No good dead goes unpunished, rather than wait till the end when all that vetting and screening had been done, we’re going to do that first cut from 100 down to 20, and we’re going to tell everybody," he said.
Patrick says if anyone lied on their application, they’re not going to get a license.
