Pro-marijuana legalization group Show-Me Cannabis announced Monday "that it would take legal action against three of Missouri’s drug task forces, alleging violations of state laws requiring transparency from public officials," according to the Lake News Online. "This announcement comes on the heels of a report the organization released last week exposing rampant misconduct within Missouri’s drug task forces. The report is titled, 'Secret, Dangerous, and Unaccountable: Exploring Patterns of Misconduct in Missouri’s Drug Task Forces' and is available to the public at www.show mecannabis.com/report."
According to the Show-Me Cannabis website, the organization has four lawsuits pending:
- Show-Me Cannabis, Inc. v. Missouri Narcotics Officers’ AssociationÂ
"The lawsuit alleges the Missouri Narcotic Officers Association 'purposefully, or in the alternative, knowingly, violated the Sunshine Law' by repeatedly ignoring and denying lawful Sunshine requests to a 'quasi-public governmental body.' Malin has filed multiple Sunshine Law requests dating back to March 20, 2014 seeking budgetary documents and other specific records from the organization, all of which have been rejected or ignored entirely."
-Â Show-Me Cannabis, Inc. v. St. Louis Metro Multi-Jurisdictional Undercover Drug Program
"For several months after Aaron Malin began requesting public records related to St. Louis City’s drug task force, an attorney representing the city’s police department refused to produce the requested records because he insisted that the drug task force didn’t exist. Â Malin eventually discovered, however, that not only did the task force exist — the very attorney arguing its non-existence was the individual who had for years been responsible for receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on the task force’s behalf. Â Malin and Show-Me Cannabis have sued the task force and the attorney for this egregious violation of Missouri’s Sunshine Law."
-Â Show-Me Cannabis, Inc. v. East Central Drug Task ForceÂ
"Show-Me Cannabis staff were forcibly removed from the Audrain County Sheriff’s office the afternoon of January 29th. Director of research Aaron Malin, along with legal counsel David Roland, came to the Sheriff’s office to exercise their legal right observe a public meeting of the oversight board of the East Central Drug Task Force. After waiting in the office for several minutes to be admitted to the meeting, Lieutenant Matthew Oller physically barred Malin and Roland from entering the meeting and ordered them to leave the premises, warning of consequences if the two did not obey his commands.
In doing so, the East Central Drug Task Force blatantly violated RSMo 610.020. Missouri’s Sunshine Law requires that meetings of public governmental bodies, such as a board of directors for a drug task force, to be open to the public not only to observe, but to record the proceedings."
Show-Me Cannabis, Inc. v. Kansas City Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force
"Show-Me Cannabis sought to obtain the meeting minutes of the board of directors overseeing the drug task force. To be eligible for funding, Missouri’s drug task forces are required (RSMo 195.509) to establish a policy board to oversee the operations of the task force, and we were interested in the content of those meetings. After weeks of delay, the KCPD came out and admitted that the “board” had been formed on paper to comply with the oversight requirement, but had never actually met in person.
When the board was formed, a memorandum of understanding was signed by its members. That memo explicitly states compliance with RSMO 195.509 as the reason for formation. The memo also states the board will meet “as needed” to provide oversight of the task force. Evidently, they didn’t feel the need to ever provide that oversight, as the task force board of directors has never meet in the entirety of its existence."
