Cobb Reporter

A medical marijuana company has filed suit against the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, accusing the company of allowing its application process to be clouded by "conflicts of interest" to the point where licenses were "bought and sold through closed-door politics and back-room deals."

In a recent report by FOX 5 Atlanta, Cumberland Curative President Charlie Arnold told the news organization he believes his company was cheated out of a chance to win one of the first-ever licenses to legally grow and produce medical marijuana in the state. The suit alleges that substantial conflicts of interest and back-room deals to buy and sell licenses gave select companies an unfair advantage over others.

"If there is no wrongdoing or corruption, then why not turn these applications, evaluation sheets, etc. over to the public?" Arnold told FOX 5 Atlanta. 

Republican lawmaker Alan Powell has previously blasted the bidding system as too secretive and sought to shed light on the situation by adding all the companies protesting the bid awards to the list of winning bidders. 

According to the report, the lawsuit claims the Medical Cannabis Company violated the law by keeping thousands of pages of winning bids as well as the Cannabis Commission evaluations a secret. Additionally, it argues that under state law, all key documents in the bid process should be available to anyone in the public now that a notice of intent to award licenses has been released.