Marijuana Microbusiness Applications Going Online Early

Missouri doesn’t do much right, but it can run a marijuana program

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

Back in February, adult recreational use sales started a few days early, and now the Department of Health and Senior Services says that it is launching the marijuana microbusiness program months ahead of schedule.

Application instructions will be available June 6 and can be submitted starting July 27. Visit health.mo.gov/safety/ cannabis for more information. Amendment 3, which legalized recreational marijuana in the state, required that DHSS start accepting microbusiness licenses in September 2023.

Microbusiness licenses are an attempt to try to “level the playing field” in Missouri’s cannabis industry. Until now, only those with lots of capital to invest in the expensive and complicated licensing process have been able to launch dispensaries and marijuana-cultivation facilities. The microbusiness license is cheaper to apply for, and the application fees are refundable.

People who obtain a microbusiness license have some restrictions: They can sell weed through a dispensary or cultivate marijuana in a facility; the licenses do not allow them to do both. Plus, microlicense holders are only allowed to do business with other microbusinesses.

DHSS plans to hand out 48 microbusiness licenses via a random lottery drawing in October. Six will be awarded in each congressional district in the state.

The masters of selecting things at random, the Missouri Lottery, will conduct the drawing.

Before Amendment 3 passed, the RFT’s Monica Obradovic outlined how the microbusiness license program would work. Not everyone is eligible to apply, Obradovic explained. Those who qualify for microbusiness licenses would have to prove significant financial disadvantages. Applicants qualify:

• if they have a net worth less than $250,000 and earned less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level in at least three of the past 10 years.

• if they, or a parent, guardian or spouse, have been arrested, prosecuted or convicted of a non-violent marijuana offense, as long as the offense didn’t involve providing marijuana to a minor or driving under the influence. The arrest, charge or conviction must have occurred at least one year before recreational marijuana became legal.

• if they’re a disabled veteran.

• if they live in a financially disadvantaged ZIP code where 30 percent or more of the population lives below the federal poverty level, where the rate of unemployment is 50 percent higher than the state average rate of unemployment, or where the rate of incarceration for marijuana-related offenses is 50 percent higher than the rate for the entire state.

• if they graduated from or lived in a ZIP code with an unaccredited school district for three of the past five years.

Amy Moore, director of the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation, told the Springfield News-Leader that, “This is the first implementation of a new applicant type, and it is an application type for which we are instructed to provide technical assistance and other resources to ensure eligible applicants are successful in navigating the process. We want to do everything in our power to ensure we are fulfilling that responsibility, and allowing for more time in the application processing time period is one way to do that.”