Pigford cases

Amendment 3 could help end an era of discriminatory enforcement, according to some proponents, elected officials and drug experts. How and whether it will is a growing question.

The law would help at least three Black farmers who sought licenses to grow the plants but were deemed ineligible to apply by state officials.

The bill would bring to six the number of potentially lucrative licenses earmarked for Black farmers with ties to decades-old litigation about discriminatory lending practices by federal officials.

The state issued licenses to Suwannee County's Terry Donnell Gwinn and Bascom-based Shedrick McGriff. They come nearly a decade after lawmakers laid out a blueprint for the industry and years of legal delays.

An administrative law judge rules that the Pigford license earmarked for Moton Hopkins should not go to his heirs and partners because they are not members of a "recognized class."

The anticipated move could double the size of the state's medical cannabis industry. The health department also made it more expensive for marijuana operators to renew their licenses every two years.

State health officials deemed the application submitted by Moton Hopkins and Hatchett Creek Farms, of which he owned 51 percent, to be the cream of the crop, but after he died decided to award the license to someone else.

The discrimination the set-aside license was meant to redress created obstacles for Frederick Fisher obtain it. This is Fisher’s story as he told oral historians in 2017, as he swore this year in his application and as he tells it now.

Louis Del Favero Orchids' latest lawsuit follows a September ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal that sided with the Department of Health and upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a case filed by the company.

Black farmers that were part of the Pigford class action suit must pay a fee of $146,000, more than double that paid by others. Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried wants an investigation into the rule's intent.