Freedman & Koski, a firm that launched Colorado's legal cannabis market, was awarded a $189,000 consulting contract to write Maine's marijuana regulations that will determine how the state will oversee key issues like a track-and-trace inventory system. But BOTEC Analysis, a California company that lost the consulting job to Freedman & Koski, has asked the state to stay the award of that contract in preparation for an appeal. BOTEC filed paperwork citing scoring improprieties, and also formalized an accusation that Freedman & Koski had failed to disclose a disqualifying conflict of interest in its application for the contract. 

Preti Flaherty attorney Michael Smith is representing BOTEC in its appeal.