As states approve legislation for the legalization of marijuana, new processes, policies and procedures must be developed to administer the program. While states may find that many of the administrative processes are similar to their other state programs, the licensing process for medical marijuana is somewhat unique. Because the number of licenses available is typically limited, the process used to issue licenses to dispensaries, cultivators, manufacturers and testing laboratories is competitive. The goal of the process is to issue limited licenses available to the most qualified applicants. Recently, the media has publicly criticized some states for failing to tightly control this activity.
QuantumMark worked with the State of Nevada Medical Marijuana Program to develop their application and evaluation process. Rather than using current Health Division licensing processes as models, QuantumMark borrowed the processes that are successfully used by State Purchasing for many types of competitive procurements. Four elements were identified as important:
Designing a straightforward and comprehensive application that provides the information necessary for a diligent evaluation
Having a weighted evaluation criteria that allows the best applications to receive the highest scores
Documenting the application handling and evaluation process in enough detail to foster consistent treatment of all applications
Selecting qualified evaluators and training them on the process
It was also important to Nevada to reduce any bias that might exist for or against an applicant because of their potential political influence or stature. To mitigate this problem, QuantumMark and the State worked together to divide the required information into both identified and non-identified sections. The non-identified sections required the applicant to remove any identifying details and references that could reveal the identity of the applicant. The identified sections included organizational structure, resume and financial responses and were distributed only to one group of evaluators who scored that section. That allowed the merits of the application’s non-identified business plan, marketing plan, security plan, and other response sections to receive unbiased evaluation.
One of the most important first steps after the State receives the applications is determining the total time needed to review and evaluate the submitted responses. QuantumMark worked with the State of Nevada to put in place a formula that would be used to estimate the amount of time it would take to adequately review all of the responses and determine how many people would be required to complete the entire application review and evaluation process. Planning well in advance of the application review period is crucial to ensure a swift start to a deadline driven evaluation period. As the marijuana industry continues to grow, and interest continues to build due to the amount of money being made by those already in the industry, the number of applications a state will receive will continue to increase.
QuantumMark specializes in helping states implement marijuana programs, including the development of processes, policies and procedures consistent with up to date industry information. QuantumMark remains current on state activity and can help states navigate through the steps to achieve a successful program. Visit us on QuantumMark’s new Marijuana Consulting Services web-site, or follow us at www.quantummark.com, on Facebook or on Twitter.