Arkansas will revoke Fort Smith medical marijuana grower’s license to comply with court order

Arkansas medical marijuana regulators will revoke a Fort Smith growing company’s cultivation license, the state’s chief marijuana enforcement officer decided Monday.

After a nearly hour-long hearing, Alcoholic Beverage Control Director Doralee Chandler decided the agency should revoke River Valley Relief’s medical cannabis cultivation license to comply with a Pulaski County circuit judge’s decision.

Earlier this month, Judge Herb Wright ruled that regulators never should have issued River Valley Relief a license due to several deficiencies with the company’s application and qualifications. The chief problems Wright found were that the location River Valley offered for its facility in the application was too close to a juvenile justice facility and issues with its corporate organization.

That lawsuit was brought by a competing license applicant, Southern Roots Cultivation, which hopes to secure the last of eight lucrative cultivation licenses for itself.

River Valley Relief has appealed Wright’s ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

The Fort Smith group may also appeal Chandler’s decision to the full Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. The board’s next meeting is Dec. 21, and Chandler’s decision would be put on hold until the board makes its final call.

River Valley began growing last year and has since begun to sell its products.

The fight over the growing license is the latest development in a litigious process that has resulted in a complicated web of lawsuits, complaints and investigations.