Staff stood ready. Signs advertised gummies and oils and concentrates and beverages. Glass jars, capped with a magnifying lid — for close observation of marijuana bud textures and colors — waited, empty. All the store needed was product.

“We want to give back to communities,” said Bradford Goette, 53, a co-owner of N’Bliss Cannabis, just east of Highway 141. “Maybe the city’s for some people, but we’ve got plenty of people out here, and everybody deserves access.”

The state of Missouri has now approved medical marijuana users, growers, laboratories and dispensaries. A backlog has kept product from arriving, yet, at stores. But owners like Goette expect that to change, any day. Missouri-grown marijuana is being tested by state-licensed labs even now. They expect to make the first sales in the state as soon as this week.

Voters approved medical marijuana almost two years ago, making Missouri the 33rd state to legalize cannabis as medicine. [Read more at St. Louis Post-Dispatch]