The names of three local men, including prominent trial attorney Fred Levin, were revealed Friday by the Florida Department of Health as investors in companies trying to bring the strain of medical marijuana known as Charlotte’s Web to Florida.
Levin is an investor in Ray of Hope 4 Florida, the company managed by Gulf Breeze father Peyton Moseley that owns the rights to the trademarked strain in the state. Levin’s partner, Robert Loehr, is also an investor. Levin, who made his name suing the tobacco industry, said he first made a charitable donation to Ray of Hope after hearing the story of RayAnn Moseley, the daughter of Peyton and Holley Moseley who suffers from intractable epilepsy.
The Moseleys were instrumental in the passage of the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014 which legalized the use of medical marijuana in Florida, but have since been fighting the state’s Department of Health after their Jacksonville partners, Loop’s Nursery & Greenhouses, were denied a license to grow last year.
Levin said he became an investor in Ray of Hope when the Moseleys brought the Colorado-based developer of Charlotte’s Web, Joel Stanley, to Florida to find a nursery to partner with.
“He just kind of backed the startup of vetting the nurseries and getting the ball rolling for Charlotte’s Web attorney’s fees and things like that,” Moseley said.
Also from Pensacola, David Clark is one of five shareholders in a company called Loop’s Dispensaries that will sell Charlotte’s Web if Administrative Law Judge R. Bruce McKibben awards Loop’s a license to grow. Clark is also president of the board of directors of Realm of Caring Florida, an arm of the Realm of Caring Foundation founded by the Stanley brothers in Colorado Springs, Colo. Realm of Caring Florida assists patients seeking medical marijuana treatments and has advocated for the reform of medical marijuana laws statewide.
In a case awaiting McKibben’s order, Loop’s has argued that it was wrongfully denied a license when it was scored third in the state’s northeast region, behind Gainesville’s Chestnut Hills Tree Farm and San Felasco Nursery. Levin and others believe the deck was stacked against Loop’s and that the licensing process was tainted by politics.
“They were ranked third which, just from the little bit i know, doesn’t make sense,” Levin said. “The winner was a tree farmer and the other had someone who just got out of jail. At that point it would almost be impossible that that took place without there being some political situation.”
The scoring process played out last year in front of a three judge-panel that included the director of the DOH’s Office of Compassionate use, Christian Bax, its former director Patricia Nelson and public accountant Ann Filloon. Bax scored Loop’s as the highest and most qualified of the three growers vying for the northeast region’s license, but Filloon resigned late in the process and was replaced by Ellyn Hutson, who scored Loop’s well below the other applicants, leading some to believe she was hand-picked to tank Loop’s bid.
Levin, who has stage-four lung cancer, said rather than his name, people should take notice of those that have stood in the way of Charlotte’s Web coming to Florida.
“You’re dealing with health issues of children and to make it a political issue is sickening,” he said.
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Full Article: Levin Among Medical Marijuana Investors
Author: Will Isern
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Website: Pensacola News Journal