WOSU.org
By Jo Ingles
Posted December 13th 2017
(PHOTO: DAVE YOST OHIO STATE AUDITOR)
JIMMY GOULD CHAIRMAN/CEO CANNASCEND
State Auditor Dave Yost says questions about past drug convictions of a consultant who played a key role in Ohio’s new medical marijuana program, set to begin operation in September, need to be addressed now. And he believes it’s time for an investigation.
Yost says he’s troubled by reports that the consultant who graded applications from companies seeking licenses had drug convictions in his past.
“This is an epic fail. I’m outraged.”
Jimmy Gould the head of CannAscend , one of the companies that failed to get one of Ohio’s large marijuana growing licenses says the state hired a convicted drug dealer to play a key role in the program.
Jimmy Gould was one of the backers of the failed 2015 ballot issue to legalize marijuana. Gould says Trevor C. Bozeman, owner of iCann Consulting, which the state hired to score applicants for growing licenses, has a conviction for possessing and intending to traffic drugs.
CannAscend conducted background checks on all three reviewers and found that one, Trevor C. Bozeman, pled guilty in 2005 to possession with intent to manufacture or distribute a controlled substance in Pennsylvania and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Yost questions how someone with those convictions could be hired by the state for $150,000 to do that work.
“I think this revelation calls into question all of the work that’s been done.”
Yost, who is running for attorney general, wants current A.G. Mike DeWine, who is running for governor, to start a full investigation into how this consultant was chosen by the Ohio Department of Commerce, the lead agency overseeing Ohio’s medical marijuana program. The agency’s request for proposal for consultants did not ask about criminal convictions.