Heirs and partners of a Black farmer challenge Florida’s denial of a medical marijuana license

Share
pot plants
Cannabis plants at a marijuana grow house. By St. Pete Police (April 2016).

Heirs and business partners of a Black farmer who vied for a potentially lucrative medical marijuana license are trying to persuade an appeals court that state health officials were wrong to scrap his application because he died before the licensing process was complete.

The application of the late Moton Hopkins, a Marion County farmer and rancher, received the highest score of a dozen applicants who sought the license.

An administrative law judge in February upheld the Department of Health’s decision to reject the application because the farmer died before officials finished evaluating the submissions.

But lawyers for Hopkins’ heirs and partners on Tuesday filed a brief at the 1st District Court of Appeal seeking to overturn Administrative Law Judge Gary Early’s decision.

Hopkins was among applicants who sought a medical marijuana license earmarked for a Black farmer who was a “recognized class member” in class-action lawsuits over lending discrimination by the federal government, known as “Pigford” cases.

State health officials began accepting applications for the license in March 2022, and in September announced they intended to grant a license to Suwannee County farmer Terry Donnell Gwinn.

All of the applicants who lost out challenged the decision, putting Gwinn’s license on hold. In this week’s brief, Hopkins’ lawyers argued, in part, that the license should go to the entity — not the individual — affiliated with the application.

The appeal said that Early erred in finding it was an “undisputed fact” that Hopkins was the “named applicant for licensure.”

Hopkins owned 51 percent of Hatchett Creek Farms, LLC, which his application identified as the proposed medical marijuana operator, according to the appeal.

Hopkins’ share of the ownership interest in Hatchett Creek went to his heirs following his death last year, the brief said. “It is significant that the ALJ (administrative law judge) mischaracterized this issue as being an undisputed fact.

Appreciating the dispute surrounding this issue is fundamentally necessary in order to properly analyze whether the department created an unadopted rule,” the brief said.

Amid the legal wrangling, state lawmakers this spring passed a measure that required health officials to issue licenses to Black farmers whose applications did not have any identified deficiencies.

Of last year’s 12 applicants, only Gwinn and Bascom-based Shedrick McGriff met that provision.

The Department of Health awarded licenses to Gwinn and McGriff on July 11.

©2023 The News Service of Florida

You may also like

Sunshine Skyway sheds rainbow lights for red, white, and blue this Pride month

Listen: The Sunshine Skyway won’t light up in its usual...

Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists
WMNF earns double finalist recognition at FABJ awards in Orlando

WMNF has earned two prestigious finalist spots at the Florida...

Deborah Dorbert
Lakeland woman describes agony of forced birth under Florida’s strict abortion law

Deborah Dorbert of Lakeland was a few months pregnant when...

marijuana art mural
Mothers, cops, and vets rally behind $5M push for recreational marijuana

A $5 million statewide ad campaign is aimed at boosting...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Retro Jukebox
Player position: