{"id":1778,"date":"2017-05-23T16:59:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T16:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2017-05-23T16:59:40","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T16:59:40","slug":"john-morgan-is-trying-monopolize-floridas-cannabis-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/2017\/05\/23\/john-morgan-is-trying-monopolize-floridas-cannabis-market\/","title":{"rendered":"John Morgan is Trying Monopolize Florida’s Cannabis Market"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Earlier this month,\u00a0John <\/b>Morgan looked to social media\u00a0to bash his longtime proconsul in Tallahassee, Ben <\/b>Pollara, over the failure of legislation implementing medical marijuana this Session.<\/div>\n
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Labeling\u00a0him \u201cFredo,\u201d (from the Godfather trilogy) and being quoted as having said that Ben \u201cf**ked the patients<\/a>,\u201d Morgan charged Pollara for putting the\u00a0interests of potential medical marijuana businesses over the larger cause.<\/div>\n
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Pollara vigorously denied those charges, but admitted in an email to supporters that issues of patient access, \u201ctended to align with businesses that wanted entry into the Florida market, and were kept from doing so \u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
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The heated public split between Morgan and Pollara has left many scratching their heads and wondering what actually caused the end to the relationship.\u00a0 Some of the details that have been reported have led to further questions about what, exactly, Morgan\u2019s interests and motivations were in this fight.<\/div>\n
Morgan\u00a0referred to Pollara as a \u201csellout.\u201d\u00a0 But was it not John Morgan who had the financial conflict on implementation?<\/div>\n

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Morgan has acknowledged a business plan to acquire an existing grower, but when asked for more detail, his response has been vague at best.<\/div>\n
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The ownership structure of existing medical marijuana license holders is shrouded in secrecy \u2014 so public records won\u2019t be of much use in an attempt to answer questions.<\/div>\n
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But here\u2019s what is<\/i> known about John Morgan\u2019s connections to Florida\u2019s authorized marijuana distributors:<\/div>\n
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\u2014 Numerous session post-mortems had reported that the Morgan-Pollara spat began on the Tuesday<\/span><\/span> night of the last week of session, when Morgan called Pollara on three-way telephone call with Jake Bergmann, the CEO of Surterra, which is one of the seven license holders.\u00a0Representing Surterra is Michael <\/b>Corcoran, the Speaker\u2019s brother, who has been described as a friend by Morgan.Their other lobbyist is Billy <\/b>Rubin, who Morgan has known since college.<\/div>\n
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\u2014 The Morgan-Bergmann-Pollara call concerned the exact issue that was so damning for medical marijuana this Session:\u00a0retail caps. This issue divided medical marijuana interests into two major groups: the \u201ccartels,\u201d i.e., existing licensees; and the \u201cHave Not\u2019s,\u201d those that wanted access to the Florida market. Pollara had been viewed throughout the Session as the leader of the \u201cHave Not\u2019s.\u201d \u00a0 Morgan\u2019s position tended to heavily favor the cartels. The positions also ended up dividing between the House (cartel position) and Senate (Have Not position). Before the call, Morgan had been noticeably absent throughout the Session, while Pollara had been a near constant presence in Tallahassee, testifying in front of every committee, including speaking for retail caps in Senate HHS Appropriations.<\/div>\n
\u2014 After implementing legislation failed, and during his social media tirade against Pollara, Morgan and Speaker Corcoran lavishly praised each other on Twitter. Soon after that, Morgan went after Negron.<\/div>\n
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\u2014 In April, while in Anguilla, Morgan posted a photo on his Facebook page of medical marijuana products produced by Knox Medical, another of the seven licensed Florida marijuana growers. The post has since been deleted.<\/div>\n
\u2014 Morgan has hinted that he was looking at potentially investing in or purchasing one of the current license holders. Other sources have revealed whisperings that Morgan recently hosted an investor pitch at his office for that very same licensee. According to the sources, Morgan was present at the meeting, but it wasn\u2019t entirely clear what his involvement with the business was.<\/div>\n

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Morgan is an attorney, first and foremost. However, he does own an advertising firm, billboards, hotels, amusement parks, just to mention some of his entrepreneurial ventures. It\u2019s almost a given that numerous pitches make their way across his desk regularly.<\/div>\n
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It would be interesting to know how many of those have been marijuana related.<\/div>\n
It would certainly be an opportunity for Morgan if that were to occur and he jumped on it.<\/div>\n
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John Morgan is definitely not faint hearted. He\u2019s still very much contemplating running for Governor. And he\u2019s said if there\u2019s a special session on medical marijuana, he\u2019ll be coming to Tallahassee this time.<\/div>\n
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Morgan is cornering himself into a position in which he\u2019ll have to answer the question of where his interests lie, at some point, if he wants to maintain any sort of credibility.<\/div>\n
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