Missouri cannabis regulators are set to open the second of three application rounds for adult-use cannabis microbusiness licenses next month on the heels of controversial first round.
The state’s Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) will accept applications for this round from April 15-29 through its online registry portal. Random lotteries will take place in June, and the licenses are expected to be issued in July, according to DHSS.
There will be 16 random lotteries held, including for wholesaler and retailer applicants in each of eight congressional districts in Missouri.
Missouri’s microbusiness licenses are “are only issued to eligible entities and individuals and are designed to allow marginalized or under-represented individuals to participate in the legal marijuana market,” according to DHSS.
The department awarded the state’s first 48 microbusiness licenses—for two retail and four wholesale facilities in each of the eight districts—in October 2023. Notably, 41% of the owners listed on 1,625 applicants for the first round were from out of state, Abigail Vivas, chief equity officer for Missouri’s Division of Cannabis Regulation, revealed in her annual activity report.
Two months after the original 48 licenses were awarded, the state determined 11 of the winners were deemed ineligible for the licenses, drawing attention to the process following reports that state residents were being taken advantage of on Craigslist. One Michigan company in particular advertised it would pay residents who were eligible for the lottery $2,000 to apply and an additional $20,000 if they won a license, but only if they signed a contract to sell their share of the business for $1 to the group behind the ad, the Missouri Independent reported.
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Ahead of the second application period, DHSS officials are advising microbusiness applicants of the following:
- Per state law, an entity, which includes individuals, may apply to the Department for and obtain only one license to operate a marijuana microbusiness facility, which may be either a microbusiness dispensary facility or a microbusiness wholesale facility.
- A microbusiness applicant may not have an owner who is also an owner of an existing medical, comprehensive, or another microbusiness marijuana facility license or certification. This limitation ensures everyone who applies has an equal chance at obtaining a microbusiness facility license.
- Winners of microbusiness licenses are to be selected via random lottery drawing. To ensure the integrity of the applicant selection process, the Missouri Lottery will conduct the drawing without reference to the identities of the applicants.
- After the application submission window closes, qualifying applicants will be sorted by congressional district and license type (wholesale or dispensary); then, assigned a sequential applicant identifier within those groups. Each group will be considered its own lottery set, for a total of 16 lottery drawings.
- All timely applications submitted with application fee will be entered into the lottery drawing. Untimely applications, or those submitted without an application fee, will be denied and will not go to lottery.
- Applications submitted into the lottery drawing will be listed in the order drawn within each congressional district. All applicants will receive an email notice prior to being sent to lottery with their applicant identifier.
- The lottery will take place in June 2024. The lottery drawing results will be posted to the department’s website as soon as they are available.
As of Feb. 21, the state had approved 214 adult-use dispensaries to operate—ones that transitioned from the state’s medical market—but had yet to approve the first 16 microbusiness dispensary facility licensees for operations. The first 32 microbusiness wholesale facilities also have yet to be approved for operations.
In the first 12 months following Missouri’s February 2023 adult-use sales launch, licensed dispensaries reported more than $1.4 billion in cannabis sales, including more than $1.1 billion from the adult-use channel, according to DHSS.
