Questions Raised Over Pot Nonprofit’s Link to Ex-Politician in Massachusetts

Plans filed with the state of Massachusetts by a medical-marijuana nonprofit indicate it would channel 50 percent of revenue from its prospective pot dispensaries to a private firm run in part by one of its principals, former congressman William D. Delahunt, according to The Boston Globe.

Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts, led by Mr. Delahunt, received three of the 20 licenses provisionally granted by the state last month for medical-marijuana outlets. He is one of six managers of Triple M Management Co., which the nonprofit’s license applications state would get half of a projected $49-million in revenue during the dispensaries’ first three years of operation.

The arrangement is cited in a lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf 1 Relief Inc., a company in Needham, Mass., that bid unsuccessfully for a marijuana license. Thomas A. McLaughlin, a Massachusetts nonprofit consultant, called the 50-percent payment “completely excessive.”

Mr. Delahunt said the arrangement described in the applications is from “an earlier draft that I have nothing to do with.” He said Triple M’s 50-percent share represented funds to pay back investors in the dispensaries. “They have to get a return on their money. It’s not some huge gift,” he said.