Missouri’s nascent medical marijuana industry is getting right down to business, and we don’t mean growing plants. Industry players have already donated more than $15,000 to a political action committee controlled by Gov. Mike Parson, whose administration will decide who gets growing licenses and what regulations they’ll face.
There’s no law against giving money to politicians as they’re making decisions that directly affect the donor’s business — but, as the Steve Stenger saga in St. Louis County has so freshly reminded us, there should be. The Parson donations also drive home how problematic it is that the state is trying to hide the identities of marijuana license applicants.
Missourians in November voted to legalize medical marijuana. With sales expected to top $100 million by 2025, competition is fierce to get licensed by the state for a piece of that action.
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It was within that context that the owner of the newly formed medical marijuana company Artemis Therapeutics, and a Perryville greenhouse that Artemis plans to work with, gave $15,000 Parson’s Uniting Missouri PAC. As the Post-Dispatch’s Kurt Erickson reported this week, it came in the form of three $5,000 donations, all on March 4.
There’s no proof the donors or Parson have done anything wrong. Of course, the same could have been said, for years, of Stenger, the former St. Louis County executive whose donors were continually getting official favors while giving him money. It took federal investigators to prove those circumstances weren’t just suspicious, but criminal.
Even absent a crime, the act of giving money to politicians who can influence who gets those marijuana licenses and what regulations will apply to them creates an appearance of such impropriety that it diminishes public trust in government.
One solution would be a ban on any political donations from people seeking or receiving marijuana licensing. Or, Parson and other officials could simply declare publicly that they won’t accept such donations. After all, Parson pledged in November that he would uphold the “highest ethical standards.”
Instead, they’re just making those donations difficult to identify. The Post-Dispatch is suing the state to force release of the identities of marijuana license applicants, because the state has taken the bizarre stance that protecting those applicants’ proprietary information means even their identities can be hidden from the public.
The fact that Parson’s PAC is taking money from prospective marijuana licensees wouldn’t have come to light at all if not for Erickson’s investigative reporting, which began with a tip. Who knows how many other potential licensees are loading up Missouri’s leaders with cash, hoping to steer state policy to their benefit instead of the public’s?
By accepting such conflicted donations — and then trying to prevent the public from even knowing about them — Parson’s administration is casting a shadow of suspicion over this already-controversial new industry. There’s still time to set a better course.
