Missouri drew its final round of marijuana microbusiness applicants on September 9. The state received 888 applications and expects to issue approximately 77 licenses beginning in December.
The months between the drawing and licensing are the focus of a new warning from Adrian A. Holguin of CannaShark Consulting, writing via the Missouri Independent. Holguin runs licensing, compliance and operations work for cannabis operators.
He argues the most important protection for Missouri’s newest cannabis entrepreneurs may be knowing when not to sign.
Forty-six licenses from the first two rounds are active but not yet approved to operate. As of August 18, only 21 microbusinesses were operating.
Jimi Poe, who won in the first round and became the first to open a microbusiness dispensary, told the division’s own podcast it took him two years rather than the six months he expected.
When the state put new microbusiness rules in place in May, Holguin did not read them as an attack on the trade. He said the rules are aimed at the right problem but stop just short of solving it.
The rules spell out what it means to majority-own and operate a license. They let regulators review ownership arrangements before a license issues rather than after.
They also require a compliance course before applying and again after the award. Eligible owners must serve as the primary point of contact with regulators during the application process.
Holguin wrote that all of that reaches the contract, but none of it reaches the wait. A top-drawn applicant this fall may hold a license coming as soon as December, a facility they may not have secured, capital they may not have raised and no experience operating in a regulated industry.
He said a wait drains cash and makes people feel behind, and both push toward signing. Most people who sign a bad agreement are not careless, he wrote they are outmatched.
Holguin advised licensees to watch for equity that vests on signature rather than on delivery. He asked why an adviser is receiving ownership before the promised work has been completed.
He also warned against a management agreement wearing a consulting label. If a document hands someone else hiring authority, banking authority or control of the seed-to-sale account, that is not simply advice.
Under the new rules, those provisions could raise questions about whether eligible owners retain the control Missouri now requires. He also urged watching for fees calculated against gross rather than net revenue.
He said licensees should check whether standard operating procedures describe their actual building. If the document refers to rooms you do not have, nobody walked your facility closely enough.
His final advice: ask which licensees a consultant has taken from award to operation, and request to speak with them. A consultant with a successful track record should be able to provide references.
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