After drying and curing, leaves are trimmed from the flowers and the remaining buds are collected for use as product.
Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez
mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
According to the state constitution, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services needs to open up applications for its microbusiness license program — which is intended to give small businesses a chance to join the lucrative market and is geared toward lower income individuals, those who live in historically disinvested communities and those who have been previously arrested for marijuana — by September.
But the department says it plans to start the process early, as soon as this summer.
Applications will be available by June 6, and the submission window for the first round of microbusiness license applications will open from July 27 to Aug. 10.
Only a handful of licenses will be awarded in each congressional district through a lottery system.
Applicants will need to meet specific requirements, have a proposed building for the business and be ready to pay a $1,500 application fee in order to be considered.
Those interested will be able to find the applications at cannabis.mo.gov.
Here’s a look at what to know before applying to sell legal weed.
WHAT IS A MICROBUSINESS LICENSE, AND WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS?
The microbusiness licenses will be a way for regular people and business owners to break into the recreational weed market.
They are different than the comprehensive licenses that are for large-scale facilities that sell, cultivate and distribute marijuana.
There will be two kinds of microbusiness licenses: one for dispensaries, and another for wholesale facilities.
Microbusiness wholesale facilities can cultivate up to 250 flowering plants at any given time. These facilities can only sell marijuana products to other microbusiness facilities, not to the bigger dispensaries. And microbusiness dispensaries can only acquire marijuana products from other microbusiness facilities, not from the larger players.
Some people predict this limitation could make it harder for these businesses to compete with the bigger dispensaries that have been selling since February, while others think it means microbusinesses will offer more boutique or craft marijuana products.
HOW MUCH WILL A MICROBUSINESS LICENSE COST?
The application will cost $1,500, and then qualifying applicants will be chosen based on a lottery system conducted by the Missouri Lottery, according to the state health department.
If granted, licenses last for three years and are renewable.
Applicants that do not receive a license will be refunded their application fee.
How many will be selected?
In October, Missouri will issue six microbusiness licenses in each of the eight Missouri congressional districts, for a total of 48 microbusiness licenses, according to the health department.
Of the six in each district, two will be microbusiness dispensaries, and four will be microbusiness wholesale facilities.
For each application cycle, the state will continue to grant at least six of these microbusiness licenses in each congressional district.
Over time, the department will be responsible for offering 18 licenses in each congressional district for a total of 144 licenses. The department can choose to offer more microbusiness licenses than this, but they will not be required to.
Roderick Pearson Jr., left, and Andrew McDowell, inside Funky Skunk, a retail smoke shop that sells CBD, helps patients get medical marijuana cards and and hosts marijuana-smoking events Tammy Ljungblad tljungblad@kcstar.com
How will microbusiness licenses be selected?
According to the health deparment, the Missouri Lottery will be in charge of selecting applicants using a certified software that produces random results.
All applications that are submitted by Aug. 10 along with the required fee will be entered into the lottery drawing.
Applications will be sorted by congressional district and license type, whether they’re for a wholesale or dispensary facility.
Each application will then be assigned a “sequential applicant identifier” to keep applicants’ names and identities out of the random process.
Whoever is the primary contact on an application will get an email saying what the application’s identifier is before the drawing.
The health department will review applications in the order that they’re drawn by the lottery to see if they are eligible to receive licenses. If any of the first six applications drawn in a district are denied or if any of the applicants refuse the license, it will go to the next eligible application drawn in order.
The state will list the random drawing results on its website cannabis.mo.gov.
After arriving at six qualified applications per district, the health department will notify winners via email.
Can your name be on more than one application to improve your chances?
No.
The state constitution specifies that a business can apply for and obtain only one microbusiness license.
According to the health department, “An individual or entity may only be listed on one application, regardless of the amount of ownership interests.”
If an individual’s name is on multiple applications, all applications with that person’s name could be denied.
WHAT’S THE TIMELINE FOR APPLICATIONS?
The applications and instructions will be available starting June 6.
The application submission window will be open from July 27 until Aug. 10.
Between Aug. 11 and Oct. 2, the Missouri Lottery will draw applications, and the applications that win the lottery will be announced and processed.
From Oct. 2 to 4, microbusiness licenses will be awarded.
In October and November the department will review minimum standards and eligibility of awarded licenses.
By Nov. 5 the department will start to refund applicants that were not selected for a license.
HOW SOON WILL MICROBUSINESSES BE ABLE TO SELL LEGAL WEED?
If businesses already have the infrastructure to sell or cultivate their product by then, they could technically open shop as soon as they receive their licenses in October.
WHO QUALIFIES FOR A MICROBUSINESS LICENSE?
In order to get a microbusiness license, business owners will need to meet one of five requirements. Applicants don’t need to fit all five of the requirements to be eligible for the microbusiness license, just one.
An individual qualifying for a license under the income category needs to meet this financial criteria for at least three of the past 10 years to qualify.
Location
People could also qualify for microbusiness licenses if they live in a census tract area where at least 30% of the community lives below the poverty line, or if they live in an area where the unemployment rate is 50% higher than the state’s average.
People who graduated from an unaccredited high school or live in a ZIP code that housed an unaccredited school district for three of the past five years can also qualify for the microbusiness license program.
This would include Kansas City residents, since Kansas City Public Schools didn’t gain accreditation until 2022.
Communities impacted by marijuana prohibition
Specific groups that qualify include disabled veterans and individuals whose families have been arrested, prosecuted or convicted of a nonviolent marijuana offense.
To qualify, the charge must have occurred before December 2021.
This category does not include anyone charged with providing marijuana to minors or driving under the influence of marijuana.
People who live in a community where the rate of incarceration for marijuana-related charges is historically higher than the rest of the state by at least 50% also qualify.
WHO DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR THE LICENSE?
People who already hold a medical marijuana license will not qualify for a microbusiness license.
Business owners will also be ineligible to sell or manufacture weed if they have pleaded guilty or have been found guilty of a felony offense, with the exception of most marijuana charges, charges that are more than five years old and if someone was released from probation or parole for the charge more than five years ago.
Applicants will be required to provide fingerprints to make sure that they do not have a disqualifying felony offense, according to the health department. The fingerprints are required for any owner of the business with 10% or more voting or financial interest in the company.
DO APPLICANTS NEED A BUILDING IN ORDER TO APPLY?
Yes. When applying for a microbusiness license, applicants will have to include a proposed address for their dispensary or wholesale facility, according to the health department.
DO APPLICANTS GET A REFUND IF THEY DON’T GET A LICENSE?
Yes. Applications that are not selected in the lottery process will receive a refund as soon as November.
Kynala Phillips was a Service Journalism Reporter at The Kansas City Star, where she worked to answer readers questions about the resources and services in the community. She attended the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is originally from Madison, Wisconsin.
