Since 2019, a Florida-based medical marijuana company has waged a legal war against the city of Miami over what it considers unfair restrictions. In three separate lawsuits, Altmed is suing the city to overturn restrictions on the location of cannabis dispensaries and to open a dispensary named Müv at 607 Fifth Street near Washington Avenue. Additionally, Altmed has petitioned a Miami-Dade Circuit Court appellate panel to have a city board’s denial of a variance to get its building permit overturned.
Altmed submitted a building permit application in November 2018, holding regular meetings between its contractors and city and zoning officials to discuss the dispensary it wanted to build in Miami Beach. While the application was still pending, the city commission approved an ordinance prohibiting dispensaries from being built within 1,200 feet of each other. As part of the final stages of approval, the firm submitted a business tax receipt application as well as a business and security plan to Miami’s building, planning and zoning departments in April 2019.
However, city officials told the firm’s contractor just a month later that Altmed would not receive a permit as Miami Beach had already granted MedMen, then the largest and most valuable cannabis company in the United States, a permit for a location within 1,200 feet of Altmed’s proposed building. The company quickly scheduled a hearing in front of the adjustment board, but the hearing was postponed from March to July, the complaint says.
According to Juan Carlos Planas, the city’s ordinance preventing cannabis dispensaries from being within 1,200 feet of each other is in violation of the Florida Constitutional amendment that legalized medical cannabis in the state. Additionally, he says that since MedMen’s building permit was approved, the company has made no move to build a dispensary, arguing that MedMen “grew too fast and ran out of money.” Recent news reports say MedMen’s liabilities exceed its assets by 50% with the operational costs exceeding 100% of gross revenues.
As such, Altmed sued MedMen to void its building permit this April, arguing that the struggling company had no intention of building a dispensary at the site close to its proposed dispensary. The lawsuit alleges that MedMen sued the city to open a dispensary at another location on Alton Road, is using its permit as leverage against the city, and plans to sell it to another medical marijuana company. Although the lawsuit was partly dismissed in early December, the judge has allowed Altmed to refile an amended complaint.
Operators in other states where cannabis is legal are not experiencing similar issues. For example, Gage Cannabis Co. was founded when Michigan legalized recreational cannabis, and the company already has 19 cultivation licenses, with several open and planned dispensaries.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Gage Cannabis Co. are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/GAGE
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