Dear Rep. Becker-Finn,
Thank you for responding to my email regarding the illegal smuggling
conducted by Minnesota Medical Solutions (MinnMed), a division of
Vireo Health, to another Vireo Health subsidiary in New York, and
referring my concerns to your ânon-partisan attorneyâ whose âlegal
expertise is medical cannabis law.â (SEE ATTACHED LETTER)
Unfortunately, your ânon-partisan attorneyâ whose âlegal expertise is
medical cannabis lawâ raises more questions than she answers.
1. Who is this ânon-partisan attorneyâ whose âlegal expertise is
medical cannabis lawâ and what exactly makes her an expert on this
ridiculous piece of legislation? Did she write the Nazi-like law,
where desperate people suffering from pain and illness are forced to
pay for certifications from questionable medical practitioners in
order to pay again, annually, to enroll in a bogus study/surveillance
program, and then again pay, outrageously exorbitant prices, for
medicine from one of only 2 licensed manufacturers? If Minnesota's
âmedical cannabisâ law wasn't so disgusting, it would be joke.
2. Apparently, according your ânon-partisan attorneyâ whose âlegal
expertise is medical cannabis lawâ, at the time of the illegal
smuggling, the âmedical cannabisâ law contained no penalties for
illegal smuggling? According to your ânon-partisan attorneyâ whose
âlegal expertise is medical cannabis lawâ, it was only after âthis
issue (the illegal smuggling) came to lightâ that the agency that
oversees the ridiculous law, the Minnesota Department of Health, was
given the authority to penalize the licensed manufacturer for illegal
smuggling. How absurd is that? What are patients in the program
paying a $200 annual registration fee for, if not to prevent the
licensed manufacturers from criminal activity?
3. Apparently, a half-million dollar shipment of hash oil was smuggled
by the Vireo Health head of security in Minnesota, in a Vireo Health
Brinks truck, to a Vireo Health business in New York. How could the
Vireo Health subsidiary in Minnesota, Minnesota Medical Solutions
(MinnMed), not know that its head of security had driven off in its
Brinks truck with a half-million dollar shipment destined for the
Vireo Health business in New York? Your ânon-partisan attorneyâ whose
âlegal expertise is medical cannabis lawâ's claim that Minnesota
Medical Solutions, a subsidiary of Vireo Health, âdid not order or
approveâ the illegal smuggling, is unbelievable.
4. Your ânon-partisan attorneyâ whose âlegal expertise is medical
cannabis lawâ states: âit is hard to predict whether MinnMed
(Minnesota Medical Solutions) would have lowered its prices in order
to sell the products that ended up being transferred to New York.â
Then she says: âThe medical cannabis program was a much smaller
program in 2015 (fewer enrolled patients, fewer qualifying medical
conditions, fewer distribution facilities) so MinnMed may not have
been able to sell the products at all.â If the supply so far exceeded
the demand that âMinnMed may not have been able to sell the products
at allâ, how could MinnMed not have lowered its prices? Would the
Minnesota Department of Health had allowed MinnMed to destroy the
excess product in order to maintain the exorbitant prices?
5. Your ânon-partisan attorneyâ whose âlegal expertise is medical
cannabis lawâ alleges it would be impracticable to compensate patients
for the poor oversight of the Department of Health and illegal
smuggling. For starters, how about refunding the registration fees
patients paid for the poor oversight resulting in the illegal
smuggling. Second, if there was a half-million dollars of product
that âMinnMed may not have able to sell...at allâ, why not require
MinnMed to distribute, at no cost to the patients enrolled during the
period when the illegal smuggling occurred, at least a half-million
dollars of product? Third, why not sue MinnMed/Vireo Health for the
regulatory/enforcement/legal costs associated with the illegal
smuggling, and distribute the proceeds to patients enrolled in the
program at the time the illegal smuggling occurred?
It should be clear from this disgusting incident of corporate crime
left unpunished, and this embarrassing example of bureaucratic
bumbling by the Minnesota Department of Health, Office of Medical
Cannabis, that Minnesota's so-called âmedical cannabisâ law is, like
the Prohibition the proceeded it, a proven failure. It's time to stop
wasting more time propping up this Minnesota âmedical cannabisâ scam
and pass a common sense law that provides safe, affordable, adult
access to a plant that has been used medicinally and for pleasure for
many thousands of years.
Sheldon Gitis
Roseville