Parson holding fundraiser with medical marijuana companies

Individuals and corporations who have obtained lucrative medical marijuana licenses from the state will gather next week to raise funds for Mike Parson, governor of Missouri.

An invitation to Tuesday’s fundraising reception was sent out by its Executive Director Andrew Mullins to members of the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association. The event will take place at the home of Hamid Hamrah, who identifies Mullins in the invitation with a license for medical marijuana related to Green Farms.

The money raised will go to Uniting Missouri, a political action committee established in 2018 to help Parson win a full term as governor. Unlike candidate committees, Uniting Missouri is not limited by state contribution limits for campaigns.

65-year-old Parson was elected for a full term last year and cannot run for governor due to term restrictions. He has also turned down the idea of ​​seeking another office in the future, most recently when he ran for an open seat in the US Senate in 2022 and said, “My career will end in that office.”

Still, he continues to raise money through Uniting Missouri.

According to disclosure reports filed this month, Uniting Missouri raised nearly $ 100,000 and spent $ 110,000 this year, mostly on fees associated with a trio of political advisory firms.

But next week’s fundraiser raises eyebrows for another reason – the medical marijuana industry is regulated by the Parson administration and has been under scrutiny on allegations of inappropriateness in licensing.

“When someone sees that industry leaders are able not even to have a seat at the table but actually pay for the table, that doesn’t speak well of how policy decisions are made,” said Beth Rotman, Director of Money in Politics and ethics for the common cause.

Benjamin Singer, executive director of Show Me Integrity, a non-partisan coalition focused on ethics in state government, said Parson was “just one participant in the fundamentally corrupt campaign funding system that fosters an uninterrupted money race in politics.”

A governor’s spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. The PAC declined to comment.

Legislative inquiry

Missourians voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2018, and state regulators for the Department of Health and Elderly Services quickly got to work building the program from the ground up.

They were criticized just as quickly.

Missouri House opened an investigation into the medical marijuana program in early 2020.

The investigation focused on widespread reports of irregularities in the evaluation of license applications and allegations that conflicts of interest within DHSS and a private company tasked with evaluating applications may have adversely affected the process.

The industry has also been audited by the FBI.

In November 2019, the DHSS received a subpoena from the US District Court for the Western District. She asked the agency to hand over all of the documentation for four medical marijuana license applications.

The copy of the subpoena that was made public redacted the identities of the four applicants at the request of the FBI.

The department was given the opportunity until January 7, 2020 to hand over all records of the applications in its possession to a large jury. State legislation met two days later, and in the weeks that followed, FBI agents, lawmakers, lobbyists and staff began questioning medical marijuana.

Lyndall Fraker, director of medical marijuana regulation for the Missouri Department of Health, later testified under oath that the subpoena was linked to an FBI investigation into Independence.

That investigation focused on two city council-approved utility contracts, but FBI agents questioned at least one supporter of Independence Marijuana about local medical marijuana regulations. Last summer, the FBI asked the city to provide coordinate maps of the neighborhood boundaries within the city council wards.

One person linked to each of the FBI lines of investigation into Independence is Steve Tilley, a lobbyist who represents the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association. He was previously a registered lobbyist for Green Farms LLC and is a client of numerous other medical marijuana companies.

Tilley is also a longtime friend, advisor, and fundraiser for the governor. At some point in 2020, a quarter of every dollar raised by Parson for the governor election was tied to Tilley and his lobby clients.

Pointing out the fundraiser for Parson over the next week, Rotman said that things don’t have to be illegal or corrupt to be problematic.

“In many cases it is clear,” she said, “in order to get the time to face the call, to have the one-on-one conversation, these campaign contributions are required.”

The Missouri Independent is a non-profit, impartial news organization dedicated to the state government and its impact on Missourians.