The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) is set to begin receiving the next wave of applications for microbusiness licenses electronically, using its online registry platform. The application window is slated to open from April 15 to April 29, 2024, with licensing expected to be finalized by July.
Last year, the department granted 48 licenses for microbusiness establishments, marking the conclusion of the initial phase in a series of three rounds for the allocation of such licenses.
Microbusinesses refer to licenses for cannabis facilities exclusively available to qualifying individuals and entities and are aimed at facilitating the involvement of underrepresented and marginalized persons in the legal cannabis industry. Unlike dispensaries, microbusinesses are subject to a growth ceiling of 250 flowering plants and are authorized for the transportation, manufacturing and packaging of cannabis products.
Before the application period opens, DHSS has provided potential applicants with several guidelines, including the following:
- Applicants may apply for only one microbusiness facility license, which could be either for a dispensary or a wholesale facility.
- Applicants are ineligible if any of their owners possess an ownership stake in an existing comprehensive, medical or any other microbusiness cannabis facility certification or license. This condition is to ensure a level playing field for all applicants.
- The selection of microbusiness license recipients will be conducted through a random lottery draw, devoid of any consideration of the applicants’ identities. The Missouri Lottery will oversee this process to uphold its integrity.
- Following the closure of the application window, qualifying candidates will be categorized by license type (dispensary or wholesale) and congressional. Subsequently, each group will be assigned a unique sequential identifier for the lottery draw, resulting in a total of 16 lottery sets.
- All applications submitted on time and with the requisite fee will be taken into account for the lottery. On the other hand, late entries or applications without the required payment will be disqualified.
- The lottery drawing, scheduled for June 2024, will determine the order of applicants within each congressional district. All applicants will receive notification via email of their applicant identifier before the lottery drawing.
- The results of the lottery drawing will be made public on the department’s website once they become available.
The department is expected to issue a minimum of 144 licenses by the third round, comprising 96 for wholesale vendors and 48 for dispensaries. According to state legislation, the licenses must be distributed evenly across Missouri’s eight districts.
The measures to expand the cannabis industry in Missouri are likely to be a welcome development for established companies such as Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CRON) (TSX: CRON), which would be happy to see prohibition rolled back across the country.
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