The state panel that will award Virginia’s first five medical marijuana licenses will keep the application review process confidential.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports Virginia Board of Pharmacy Chair Rafael Saenz announced Tuesday that the 51 applications would be considered in closed session. The decision came after regulators conferred about Virginia’s public-meeting law for 30 minutes. The pharmacy board’s executive director, Caroline Juran, says the attorney general’s office provided advice.
Medical cannabis applications are being treated as medical license applications, and are therefore exempt from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act — unlike other business proposals.
The presiding committee did release initial application scores, but the companies weren’t identified by name.