Ohio’s auditor has found a big problem with the process for scoring applications from those interested in growing medical marijuana for the state’s new program.
Auditor Dave Yost has sent a letter to the head of the commerce department that says two of its employees had unlimited access to online accounts of more than 20 application reviewers.
He says those same employees created and managed passwords for the reviewers and that could have allowed an employee to log in as a reviewer to change scores of those applying for large growers’ licenses.
In a written statement, the Ohio Department of Commerce says it has already implemented changes to securely administer usernames and passwords and is continuing to separately perform a full internal review of all its processes to ensure accuracy, efficiency and security.
There’s no word yet on what effect, if any, this will have on licenses already awarded to growers but some who were rejected have appealed the decision and others say they intend to sue the state.
