MADISON — Town officials are trying to shut down a medical cannabis shop that state regulators say has not been licensed for a year.

And after months of discussions among town officials about how to address the issue outside of court, the matter is set this week to go before a judge, who could order the store shuttered and its owner to pay fines.

The town filed a land use citation and complaint against Simple Twist Cannabis Co. and its owner Daniel P. Safranec in Skowhegan District Court in June, court records show.

The town is asking the court to impose civil penalties of $100 to $2,500 per day, to issue an injunction closing the store and to order Safranec and his company to pay the town’s legal expenses.

The complaint, filed by town attorney Kenneth Lexier, of the Skowhegan law firm Mills, Shay, Lexier & Talbot, alleges that Safranec has not held a caregiver registry identification card since July 2024 but has continued to sell medical cannabis products at his 97 Lakewood Road store.

The apparent lack of state license also puts Safranec in violation of Madison’s local ordinance for medical marijuana establishments, the town’s complaint says.

Madison’s ordinance was enacted by voters at a special town meeting in October 2024. Town officials developed it after the Office of Cannabis Policy said the town was out of compliance because a 2018 vote did not explicitly “opt in” to allow retail medical cannabis sales.

The ordinance requires a state license for such an establishment to operate in Madison. It also requires a license issued by the town select board, which Simple Twist Cannabis Co. also does not have, in part because it does not have the state approval.

Madison Town Manager Denise Ducharme told the select board this spring that the Office of Cannabis Policy informed the town Safranec had failed to renew the caregiver registry identification card he held for several years, therefore putting him in violation of the local ordinance.

The town then served Safranec with a notice of violation for the ordinance violation April 17, according to the town’s complaint.

The Office of Cannabis Policy later issued a written decision May 30, saying Safranec does not qualify for a caregiver registry identification card, the complaint says.

A hearing for Safranec to answer to the town’s complaint is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday at the Skowhegan District Court.

Safranec, who is not represented by an attorney, also has an administrative hearing with a mediator earlier in the day to appeal the denial of his caregiver registry identification card, he said.

In an interview at his shop Thursday, Safranec said he hopes he will be successful with his licensing appeal, which would then allow him to comply with the town’s ordinance.

Safranec said he has held the caregiver registry identification card since 2018 or 2019, when he first opened his business in Maine. During that time, Safranec said he never received any citations or had any other blemish on his record.

“All the paperwork, year after year, was good enough, and then, all of sudden, it’s not good enough,” he said.

Safranec said he applied in 2024 to renew the card, but was denied. Safranec said he did not hear anything further from the Office of Cannabis Policy until an inspector visited his store in March to conduct an inspection as if he had a licensed operation. It was only then that the office flagged him for operating without the caregiver registry identification card, according to Safranec.

As for why Safranec was rejected in 2024, some parts of the application had changed, he said.

It was digital instead of on paper, meaning he was not able to leave certain fields, for which he had no information, blank and then move on to the next part. Previously, someone from the Office of Cannabis Policy would follow up to seek any missing information on the paper application, Safranec said.

The Office of Cannabis Policy was also asking for LLC paperwork, Safranec said. He said he was not able to provide that documentation because his company is a C corporation.

The office also wanted him to list his address and the addresses of where he stores his product, Safranec said, which he did not want to provide out of concern it could be published in public records available online.

Now, state regulators are also denying the caregiver registry identification card because he has refused to shut down his operation during the appeal process, according to Safranec.

“Really, if the application is good before, and no law changed to the next year, why isn’t the application just resubmitted?” Safranec said. “Why would they ask for everything again?”

Alexis Soucy, a spokesperson for the Office of Cannabis Policy, confirmed Safranec’s caregiver registry identification card expired in July 2024.

Soucy declined, however, to confirm the existence of the May written decision referenced in the town’s court filing or provide a copy of it, saying that the office is “limited in terms of what we can comment on regarding ongoing investigations or open administrative actions.”

The Morning Sentinel has since requested a copy of the decision under the Freedom of Access Act from the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, the state agency under which the Office of Cannabis Policy falls.

Ducharme, the town manager, said at a May 15 meeting she was attempting to work with Safranec to help his licensing issue with the state get resolved, and gave him until the end of May to get his license. That was about two weeks beyond what Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Drew’s initial notice gave as a deadline to remedy the violation.

The select board voted at that meeting to take legal action at the end of May if Safranec did not get his license.

As for why enforcement of licensing has fallen to local officials instead of state regulators, Soucy said in an email that the Office of Cannabis Policy “has authority to regulate only activities within the state’s medical and adult use cannabis programs and among these programs’ licensed operators, cardholders, and applicants.”

“Illicit cannabis activity falls under the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies,” Soucy continued. “OCP regularly assists law enforcement agencies as they investigate reports of illicit cannabis operations by referring suspicious activity and helping identify whether an individual or address is engaging in authorized conduct.”

Ducharme told the select board June 23 that the matter has been referred to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office for potential criminal charges, in addition to the town’s land use citation pending in court.

“One way or the other, it’s going to get handled,” Ducharme said at the meeting.

Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster said last week he was unable to comment on whether his office is investigating the shop and Safranec.

Safranec said law enforcement has not yet tried to contact him.

Safranec, who also lives in Madison, admitted he “could do better at the paperwork” and is not the easiest person to work with. He said he served a federal prison sentence for a cannabis-related crime in New York, where he is from originally.

In 2015, a judge sentenced him to 12 months in prison after Safranec was convicted of manufacturing more than 50 marijuana plants, according to an archived news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York.

Safranec said it is unclear if he has lost any customers yet at Simple Twist Cannabis Co. He said he grows his own product, but some people are wary of doing business with him, such as for processing, because he lacks the caregiver card.

The business has continued to pay sales tax to Maine Revenue Services, Safranec said.

“At this point, I’m more like: I don’t know what to do because I’m not going to physically close the store,” Safranec said. “Unless the police come here and arrest me and like nail the door shut. But then, after they leave, I’m going to unnail the door and open it back up.”