Yost calls on Commerce Department to suspend cultivator licenses

COLUMBUS — Auditor of State Dave Yost today called on the Commerce Department to suspend the issuance of Level 1 cultivator’s licenses for medical marijuana following media reports that one of the application graders was a convicted drug dealer.

Media reports state that Trevor C. Bozeman, one of three consultants hired by the Department of Commerce to evaluate and grade applications for the licenses, pleaded guilty in 2005 to possession with intent to manufacture or distribute a controlled substance in Pennsylvania.

“This is an epic failure. I am outraged,” said Yost, a former county prosecutor in a statement. “The only proper course of action is to freeze the process, and independently review the evaluation and scoring from the ground up. And the administration needs to explain how this drug dealer ended up telling the government how to run its fledgling medical marijuana program.”