Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services released their final regulations for medical marijuana in advance of the state’s medical marijuana application window opening on June 4th (aka: Tuesday.) The medical cannabis industry represents not only a fair chance at a higher quality of life for patients suffering from all types of ailments, the application window also poses a huge opportunity for new industry and jobs in Missouri.

We’re thrilled to be working with businesses across the Show-Me State on this first crucial step. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s breakdown some of the critical elements of the state’s final regs and what you should be emphasizing in your application.

Missouri final regs emphasize experience with cannabis, highly regulated industries and solid finances

We can’t state this enough, Missouri from Day One has been clear on the expectations that all applicants should have experience with a highly regulated industry (healthcare, banking, pharmaceutical), that applicants/ownership group have extensive knowledge and practical experience within the cannabis industry and that your company be very stable from a financial standpoint. Lo and behold, with the final regulations, that is all made crystal clear, to wit:

• DHSS is placing a lot of scoring emphasis on knowledge of cannabis and the cannabis industry, experience in highly regulated industries and security of plants and products (ie: no stealing, no minors). This has been DHSS’s modus operandi from the word “go” and applicants need to understand the gravity of these requirements and the weight these requirements are receiving in the scoring process.
• Given the weight of knowledge of the cannabis industry and this being a new industry in Missouri, we understand that a lot of you will be considering strategic partnerships. MMLG can help with that.
• Financial liquidity is another huge criteria for all license applicants to bear in mind. DHSS even provided an expectation for liquidity (by application category):
  • Cultivation applicants: $300,000
  • Dispensary applicants: $150,000
  • Production applicants: $150,000
  • Transportation applicants: $150,000
  • Testing applicants: $200,000

Training and education of employees (and consumers) will be critical

DHSS established the above parameters to ensure that if you are granted a license, you won’t lose your license in short order by violating a regulation or being non-compliant. Again, we say this a lot in our offices, state authorities do not like to take away licenses that they’ve issued; they set up qualifying measures and compliance safeguards as a good-faith means of filtering out bad actors or those who don’t understand the responsibility of cannabis licenses.

That being said, training and education of all employees (executives on down to cashiers and security) is paramount with Missouri’s application process. It’s paramount everywhere, but even us grizzled compliance vets are impressed by Missouri’s education and training expectations.

Missouri medical marijuana is a huge opportunity

The bottom line is this: Missouri officials at DHSS and elsewhere want businesses in cannabis to succeed. Medical cannabis will be a huge opportunity for businesses and, again, it offers so much relief for many patients afflicted by various health problems. While the licensing window represents a huge opportunity, licensing, compliance and applications are not the sort of paperwork that you want to get snagged on by not dotting that “i” or crossing a “t,” talk to us if you have questions.

If your business is getting ready for Missouri’s medical cannabis application window (opening on June 4th), get in touch with MMLG today. We are the cannabis consultant experts and we’re here to help your business get a license and to stay compliant. In all seriousness, this is too big of an opportunity to leave up to “your buddy who took a few law courses.”