RICHMOND — With 51 applications in the mix, the
competition for Virginia’s first five medical marijuana licenses is fierce.
When a makeshift panel of state regulators met in a
Henrico County office park Tuesday to begin reviewing boxes upon boxes of
paperwork to decide who will get to run Virginia’s first cannabis oil
dispensaries, their first order of business was closing the meeting to
reporters, lobbyists and advocates.
After a nearly 30-minute, closed-door discussion on Virginia’s public-meeting law and how it does or doesn’t apply to the process, a Virginia Board of Pharmacy committee reopened the meeting. But it was only to announce that the application review process, which may take two days, will be kept confidential.
