Two aspiring medical marijuana companies have filed lawsuits against the Pennsylvania Department of Health over its medical cannabis licensing process. And one of them is seeking to take the permit awarded to another licensed grower/processor after its parent company was implicated in a criminal investigation.

In their petitions, filed Sept. 8 in the Commonwealth Court, BrightStar BioMedics and Keystone ReLeaf allege that the permitting process used by the department's Office of Medical Marijuana was lacking transparency and did not provide an adequate avenue for appeals.

BrightStar's petition also seeks an injunction to block Pennsylvania Medical Solutions' development of a grower and processor facility. PMS, a subsidiary of Vireo Health, won one of the two medical marijuana grower/processor licenses for Northeast Pennsylvania that were awarded in June.