Leisa Stevens thought she had compiled a fairly competitive application to start growing cannabis on 30 acres near Kansas City International Airport. To get in on Missouri’s fledgling medical marijuana business, she scoured the state’s rules, hired an engineering firm and brought an attorney on board. She found a security expert and worked with an […]
Missouri
Missouri Commercial Hemp Farming Update
By Daniel E. Tranen and Neil M. Willner There is a great deal of interest in Missouri regarding the opportunities the state offers in the commercial hemp farming business. Hemp is a burgeoning new cash crop with scores of applications from fabric to “hempcrete” to drywall to biofuel. Of course, hemp also is the source […]
Missouri begins announcing medical marijuana dispensary licenses one day early
On Thursday morning the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services began notifying hundreds of applicants for coveted medical marijuana dispensary licenses as to whether they would be permitted to sell cannabis inside highly secured retail facilities. Department spokeswoman Lisa Cox told the News-Leader by text message that the full list of accepted and denied […]
No spending plan yet for millions in Missouri medical marijuana money slated for vets
Missouri’s medical marijuana program has generated millions of dollars for state coffers in the last year, but officials do not yet know how they’ll spend the money. Under the constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana, application fees from businesses, and a 4% tax on medical marijuana sales, are supposed to go to the Department of Health […]
Missouri’s New Medical Marijuana Industry Puts Banks In A Tough Spot
Robbie Guard sees a green opportunity in Missouri’s newest industry — medical marijuana. He runs the Cape Girardeau office for MRV Banks. The 13-year-old institution has just three locations along the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. As a relatively young bank with a small footprint, it struggles to bring in new accounts. Guard hopes […]
Missouri awards first medical marijuana business licenses to 10 testing facilities
Missouri on Thursday awarded the first state licenses for medical marijuana businesses to 10 companies that will conduct safety and potency tests of marijuana products. The license winners were the highest scoring among 17 applicants to the Department of Health and Senior Services, the state agency responsible for regulating medical marijuana. The applicants were scored in […]
Missouri will license all marijuana businesses by Feb. 1, officials say
Missouri let hundreds of business groups know Thursday when they’ll find out whether they won one of the limited number of state licenses to grow, process and sell marijuana for medical use. The first licenses — for 10 facilities that will test marijuana products — will be awarded “approximately” Dec. 19, and all businesses will have been […]
Retired general, politician among Missouri’s applicants for multiple marijuana businesses
A former Missouri National Guard adjutant general with an extensive career in state politics seeks to open what would be one of the largest commercial medical marijuana operations in the state. Retired Maj. Gen. Stephen L. Danner heads a business group among the most ambitious of hundreds of competitors for state-issued licenses to grow and […]
Missouri may not let legal marijuana companies pay taxes in cash. That could be a problem.
Late Monday, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services issued a proposed rule governing the way licensed medical marijuana facilities should pay taxes and other money owed to state government. The rule says that state-licensed companies that handle cannabis — for example, dispensaries or growing outfits — will be required to pay their Missouri taxes and […]
Homegrown? Marijuana business hopefuls in Missouri competing with country’s largest pot retailers
ST. LOUIS — The hungriest competitors for state licenses to open marijuana businesses in Missouri are from other states, records show. Out-of-state companies, including some of the nation’s largest retail marijuana chains, submitted the highest numbers of applications for licenses to grow, process or sell marijuana for medical purposes in Missouri. Because of the financing […]
Cannabis industry group wants Missouri health officials to issue vaping regulations
JEFFERSON CITY — A medical marijuana trade association wants Missouri health officials to issue strict rules on vaping additives, testing and labeling as the number of people in the United States suffering pulmonary illnesses linked to the use vaping products continues to increase. Andrew Mullins, executive director of the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association, asked Dr. […]
Thousands of Missourians can now use marijuana as medicine. They just can’t get it legally — yet.
When Matthew Prater drives, he keeps his marijuana out of reach in a sealed container labeled with a state-issued number certifying he has a legal right to possess and use marijuana as medicine. “If I get pulled over I tell them I have a card, am in possession and where it is — and don’t […]
Hundreds in KC area vie for marijuana licenses. Here’s where they are hoping to open.
After months of research and preparation, then more than 18 hours spent uploading documents to the state’s medical marijuana application portal, Stacy Glazer is anxiously waiting. The company the 52-year-old Kansas City native formed with her older brother — Mandala Corp. — is now in the running for four of the coveted licenses Missouri will […]
Applications pour in for new medical marijuana facilities in Missouri
Missouri has received 2,267 applications for medical marijuana facilities and businesses, which means the new statewide industry may soon be coming to South County and Jefferson County. The state brought in over $13 million in application fees and received 2,163 requests from prospective marijuana business owners during the Aug. 3 to Aug. 19 application window. […]
Missouri will award 348 marijuana business licenses — selected from 2,100 applications
There will be more than 1,700 dashed hopes by Dec. 31. Early Tuesday, the Missouri health department announced that it received 2,163 applications for medical marijuana facility licenses as of its 4:30 p.m. Monday deadline. Under Amendment 2, the state must require competitive licenses for would-be owners of cannabis-related businesses. The state collected more than $13 million […]
Applications For Medical Marijuana Facilities Pour In At Deadline In Missouri
With the deadline to submit an application for a medical marijuana business closed, more than 2,100 were received, bringing in more than $5.3 million in fees, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. On Thursday, the department announced it would extend the deadline to Monday at 4:30 p.m. Initially the cutoff was […]
More than 4,000 Missourians approved for marijuana cards in program’s first month
Other than applying for a medical marijuana card, July 23 was a pretty ordinary day for a Springfield man in his mid-30s. He got up early, went in to work and got home by 5 p.m. He completed the process from his living room in his second-floor, south Springfield apartment. The man invited a News-Leader reporter to […]
Selection process for Missouri marijuana licenses needs racial equity boost, advocates say
As she applies for a state license to make marijuana-infused products for medicinal use, Keyonna Gray is thinking of people in her north St. Louis County neighborhood who were incarcerated for nonviolent marijuana offenses or battled addiction to opioids or other drugs. “I look at it as a way of creating jobs,” said Gray, a […]
