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In this Nov. 7, 2012, file photo, medical marijuana is packaged for sale in 1-gram packages at the Northwest Patient Resource Center medical marijuana dispensary in Seattle.

(Associated Press file)

BOSTON - A Suffolk County Superior Court judge will be asked to decide on Wednesday whether to prevent the Massachusetts Department of Public Health from granting any additional medical marijuana licenses and whether to revoke the approvals that have already been given.

Attorneys for 1 Releaf, a medical marijuana company that was denied a license to build a dispensary in Framingham, are asking for a preliminary injunction to prevent DPH from granting the licenses, alleging problems with its licensing process.

“We went through every single winning application, and there were problems with every one of them,” said Attorney Robert Carp, who is representing 1 Releaf.

David Kibbe, a spokesman for the Department of Public Health, said no one has a license yet – either provisional or otherwise - to operate a dispensary in Massachusetts.

“We are in the middle of an intensive verification process with the 20 applicants who have moved into this next phase, and we have been clear that anyone found to have lied or misrepresented information in their application will not get a license,” Kibbe said. “This lawsuit is frivolous and we will seek to get it dismissed quickly."

The state in January chose 20 medical marijuana applicants, which it said were "approved for provisional licensure to operate," pending final inspections and approvals from state and local officials. It invited another eight applicants to reapply in new locations.

But since the licenses were granted, questions have been raised about the process. For example, media reports found cases in which medical marijuana companies misstated the level of local support they had received. The Department of Public Health now says it will only give out provisional certificates of registration this month after it has confirmed the local support for each applicant and approved their operational plans.

1 Releaf filed a lawsuit against Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health, Gov. Deval Patrick, the individuals overseeing the state’s medical marijuana program and the committee members that selected the licensees.

Attorneys for 1 Releaf wrote in a complaint that the state was required to evaluate the applicants based on certain criteria. “A number of the winning proposals either ignored, violated or simply did not respond to the specific criteria,” the complaint states.

For example, the complaint says Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts, a company run by former U.S. Congressman William Delahunt, ignored a requirement that the marijuana be grown according to standards laid out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which require that only certain organic growing material be used.

Additionally, the suit noted that Delahunt’s company has said it will pay 50 percent of its revenue to its management company, which is run by some of the same people running the dispensary. Delahunt’s company is also paying its top staff the highest compensation of any of the companies. Delahunt, who is the CEO, Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Herlihy and Compliance Officer/ General Counsel Lianne Ankner will all earn $250,000 in the first year of business, according to Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts’ application.

By law, the medical marijuana dispensaries must be non-profits. That does not mean they cannot pay high levels of compensation to their officers. But 1 Releaf argues that the pay arrangements for Delahunt’s company contradict DPH regulations requiring that the company’s revenue be used only to further its non-profit purposes.

Delahunt’s company did not return a call on Monday.

The complaint identifies problems with the applications of the other licensees, such as companies ignoring or miscalculating certain expenses or ignoring requirements for the use of organic growing materials.

“The plaintiff is entitled to a preliminary injunction due to the lack of diligence applied by the DPH to selecting the winning candidates, the lack of consistency in applying a scoring matrix, and the apparent political favoritism allowing politically connected people to win these dispensaries,” attorneys for 1 Releaf argue.

Patrick, asked about the suit on Monday, called it “frivolous.” “I’m not surprised by lawsuits because there’s a lot of money involved…and there are going to be people who are disappointed who decide they’re going to express their disappointment in the courts,” Patrick said. “I would remind that there is an appeal process for people to engage with DPH if they feel they were unfairly treated.”

Patrick said the 20 applicants must still undergo additional steps, including verification of the information they submitted, before they get a license.

“There are no licenses, and there won’t be any licenses until that process is complete,” Patrick said. “Anybody who submits an application that’s not up to standards is not going to get a license.”