The state told a Westport man today that his medical marijuana growing company will retain its license after it was disclosed that a man it listed as its former chief grower had previously lost a local license to run a marijuana facility in Colorado.
Consumer Protection Commissioner William M. Rubenstein sent a letter to David Lipton, principal in Fairfield-based Advanced Grow Labs LLC, informing him of the state’s decision.
Rubenstein said the company can remain one of the four statewide producers of marijuana for medical purposes because his agency is satisfied that the company’s principals were “equally misled” by John J. Czarkowski.
The commissioner said his office concluded that the company – which is building a production facility in West Haven – had conducted a thorough background check on Czarkowski.
It was discovered this week that Czarkowski did not disclose to state officials that he and his wife were forced to shut down their Boulder, Colo., medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation facility in 2012 due to numerous violations. (See WestportNow March 5, 2014)
Rubenstein credited Advance Grow Labs with immediately severing its ties with Czarkowski.
Advanced Grow Labs said that although it identified Czarkowski as its director of production in licensing materials submitted to the state, he was a consultant, the Hartford Courant reported.
“A careful review of the circumstances surrounding consultant John J. Czarkowski’s license revocation by the city of Boulder, Colorado, and his efforts to conceal this information, has led the Department to conclude that he is not appropriate to act as a consultant in the ongoing operation of a facility in Connecticut’s medical marijuana program,” Rubenstein wrote in his letter to Lipton.
