The Missouri Supreme Court will decide whether the state’s medical marijuana regulators can continue to keep secret the applications of businesses that won licenses — a case that could determine the outcome of hundreds of appeals of denied licenses in the controversial program.

The confidentiality provision was included in the constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana that voters passed in 2018.

But in a case the Supreme Court heard Tuesday, lawyers for a California-based company that was denied two licenses to grow marijuana argued there was “no meaningful” avenue to appeal their denials without comparing their applications to the ones that had won.

A state appeals court ruled in May that the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services must turn over the successful applications to that company, Kings Garden Midwest LLC, during the appeals process before the Administrative Hearing Commission.

The state has fought to keep them secret under a provision in the constitution that states DHSS must “maintain the confidentiality” of information such as licensees’ sales and financial information, security plans and business operations.

DHSS contended Tuesday that secrecy is a key component of a system in which the state awarded a limited number of marijuana licenses in order to closely regulate the fledgling market. [Read more at The Kansas City Star]