Breaking News

Amid allegations of multiple problems at the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) that went public in the pages of CBE Press over the past couple of weeks, two board members have officially resigned. CBE Press has learned that Neal Levine, Senior VP of Government Affairs at LivWell Enlightened Health, has stepped down as has Kayvan Khalatbari of Denver Relief Consulting who officially left his post Tuesday instead of at the end of the year of his current term as he had announced to the board in an e-mail to the board back in the middle of December that CBE published last week.

Neither resignation comes as a surprise as reported dysfunction at the NCIA board and operations leak publicly, CBE has reported that NCIA Executive Director Aaron Smith had made efforts last year to remove Levine from the board only to have that effort rebuffed by an ethics committee ruling.

In Khalatbari’s case, CBE has learned that he gave the board an ultimatum last week that he would make his previously announced resignation effective at the halfway point of his current two-year term. However, he apparently notified the board last week that he would make his resignation effective by end of day last Monday if Rob Kampia, long-time NCIA board member and past Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Project didn’t resign his post or wasn’t voted off by the board.

According to NCIA bylaws, a vote of 2/3 of the board is required to remove a member. Apparently, neither has occurred to date as NCIA struggles to deal with its reported problems.

Who will be next to go at NCIA?