Missouri Now Accepting Cannabis License Pre-Applications

Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) began accepting pre-filed applications for its medical cannabis program, according to a News Tribune report.

Missouri voters mandated medical cannabis in the November midterms, tasking the DHSS with running the regulated system. According to the new medical cannabis state constitutional amendment, three types of medical cannabis licenses will exist: cultivators, dispensaries, and infused product manufacturers.

Pre-filing a cultivator application costs $10,000. Pre-filing for dispensaries and infused product facilities costs $6,000. Pre-applications must include the applicant’s name, social security number, mailing address, and their choice of license. They can be hand-delivered to state offices, mailed in, or sent via the Internet. Application fees are non-refundable.

Pre-filing — and the large fee that accompanies it — does not guarantee any sort of priority in the future final licensing process, which is required by the DHSS to begin no later than June 4. The DHSS is expected to also begin accepting patient applications on June 4 as well.

Once a business receives a license, they will have to renew every three years at the price of $5,000 for cultivators and $3,000 for other licenses. That renewal fee is on top of a annual fee of $25,000 for cultivators and $10,000 for the other licenses.

Local health departments are not expected to have any say in the matter. According to Jefferson City Counselor Ryan Moehlman, the voter initiative prohibits local municipalities from banning cannabis operations.

There remains much uncertainty in Missouri, however, as the DHSS has yet to issue many of the regulations necessary for the medical cannabis program. The initiative gives regulators until June 4 to finalize application requirements.