— Ballard Partners, a prominent Tallahassee lobbying firm, which until recently employed former state Rep.
Gaetz also worked with some of these same friends in other arenas.
Investigators have also learned of a conversation between Dorworth and Gaetz about recruiting a third-party candidate to help their friend Jason Brodeur win a state Senate election last fall, according to The New York Times.
“Congressman Gaetz has never accepted a gift or any other thing of value in exchange for his work on marijuana policy,” Hill added.
None of those four has been charged with any crimes.
The state’s highest-ranking Democrat and a likely 2022 candidate for governor, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, was one of Florida’s earliest medical marijuana lobbyists.
licenses back in 2015 had some political connections,” said John Lockwood, a Tallahassee attorney who represents a number of marijuana companies.
That initial law only authorized a non-euphoric, low-THC version of the drug.
One of the nurseries that met the criteria was Simpson Nurseries, which is based near Tallahassee and owned by the family of then-state Rep.
When Trulieve applied for its marijuana license, the company noted that it had already signed a letter of intent to lease a building in Tallahassee for a retail dispensary.
Today, the now-publicly traded company is by far the largest medical marijuana company in Florida, with 81 stores and more than $500 million in sales last year — more than double its nearest competitor.
Kim Rivers and Thad Beshears are two of the company’s largest shareholders.
Thad Beshears, who could not be reached for comment, has also become a major national Republican Party donor, giving $50,000 in one day during the 2016 presidential election to committees supporting Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Another early medical marijuana mover was Surterra, which was co-founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Jake Bergmann, who is now the fiancée of Fried, the state’s Democratic agriculture commissioner.
Two years after it won its license, Chestnut Hill and its license were sold to a Canadian company for $40 million cash, suggesting that Odom’s stake would have been worth around $10.8 million.
Odom continued to use Gaetz’s law firm, Fort Walton Beach-based Keefe, Anchors & Gordon, in lawsuits through that period, including representing his interests in Chestnut Hill.
Three of them, according to application records, awarded the lobbying firm investment interests in their planned cannabis businesses.
Lobbying records show that Ballard represented the two nurseries for about a year during the licensing process without reporting any compensation.
The work eventually paid off in other ways after Trulieve’s business took off.
For instance, Jason Pirozzolo, the Orlando hand doctor who has befriended a number of state leaders over the years, started a consulting firm providing medical directors to nurseries seeking marijuana licenses.
Pirozzolo’s business, Florida Health Privilege, provided medical directors to three nurseries that applied for licenses, including Winter Garden-based Knox Nursery, which won the initial license for Central Florida.
For instance, in September 2017, Pirozzolo’s physicians’ association endorsed a medical-records software system developed by a cannabis tech company called Alternate Health Co.
And the company paid Ballard Partners at least $80,000 over the next year, according to lobbying compensation records.
Dr.