Recreational Pot Presents Opportunities for Missouri’s Medical Cannabis Biz

In two weeks, Missouri voters will decide on an amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in the state. Aiming to expand.

of St. Louis Business Journal there is a report A ballot proposal known as Amendment 3 was submitted this week. This is “projected to create a very large market for companies that have already emerged as major players in the state’s legal medical marijuana market.”

outlet highlight “Proper Cannabis, a St. Louis-based medical pharmacy that opened a $20 million facility in Rock Hill last year, operates three clinics in the St. Louis area.” Be prepared for a significant increase in demand.”

‘It’s exciting and needed,’ says Proper Cannabis CEO John Pennington said to business journal“There are two to three times as many people in Missouri as we are likely already consuming, and we want a safe, compliant, fun place to buy quality products and medicines we can trust. will be able to.”

Medical cannabis began operating in Missouri in the fall of 2020 after Missouri voters passed a bill legalizing the treatment in 2018.

A year after the medical marijuana program began, the state reported that the industry had grown to more than 140 dispensaries employing about 5,000 people.

of St. Louis Business Journal It also reports that “BeLeaf Medical, an Earth City-based medical cannabis company, has made notable changes in preparation for its potential market expansion into recreational cannabis.”

According to the outlet The company recently hired Jason Nelson as its new CEO. “I joined the company three and a half months ago from Chicago-based Cresco Labs as senior vice president of horticulture at a cannabis company,” Nelson said. Sales from medical to recreational.

Amendment 3 was formally put on a Missouri ballot in August. Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said the group behind the proposal, Legal Missouri 2022, had submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures.

“A statewide coalition of activists, business owners, medical marijuana patients, and advocates for criminal justice reform has worked tirelessly to get to this point and deserves all the credit,” said the Missouri Attorney General. campaign manager John Payne said in a statement at the time. “Our campaign volunteers collected over 100,000 signatures in addition to the paid signature collection. You’ve made all the difference.I look forward to engaging with voters statewide in the coming weeks and months.Missourians are ready to end the pointless and costly ban on marijuana. .”

If approved by voters, the Third Amendment would require that “any Missourian who is 21 years of age or older owns, purchases, consumes, or grows marijuana” and “a Missourian who has committed a nonviolent marijuana-related crime Automatically expunge criminal record”.

The initiative will also create a legal marijuana market with a 6% sales tax on cannabis.

“Besides covering administrative costs and costs to process automatic expungements, the remaining surplus will be split equally between veterans’ medical care, drug addiction treatment, and underfunded Missouri’s public defender system. ,” Regal Missouri explains on its website.

In addition, Missouri local governments can impose their own sales tax of up to 3%. According to the group, state officials “anticipate at least $40.8 million in additional annual revenue and at least $13.8 million in additional local government revenue.”

Prospects for the proposed amendment are difficult to gauge as there are polls on the proposal all over the map.