A judge Wednesday denied a Clark County woman’s request to halt the issuance of lottery-awarded marijuana retail licenses in Longview to allow time for unsuccessful applicants to appeal.
Liz Hallock, a Camas resident and lawyer in White Salmon, said the state Liquor Control Board rejected her application to open the Lucky Toke LLC marijuana retail store, saying the application was incomplete. However, there was no explanation about why the application was deemed incomplete, Hallock said. She said she suspects the state processors couldn’t open her electronically filed paperwork because they didn’t have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat reader.
She said there also wasn’t a clear process for appealing the decision.
In late April, she sought a writ of mandamus — a request for the judiciary to intervene and force an agency to follow the law — from Cowlitz County Superior Court, and a hearing was set for Wednesday to consider the request.
Hallock said Judge Marilyn Haan ruled that her request “wasn’t ripe for review” because Hallock had not yet appealed the decision to the Liquor Control Board and gone through the administrative appeal process. Haan said a possible remedy would be the issuance of additional licenses, Hallock said.
Hallock said she is still considering whether to appeal the decision to the Liquor Control Board.
