!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics --> Marijuana Business Magazine March 2020

Marijuana Business Magazine March 2020

Marijuana Business Magazine | March 2020 114 Main measures MMJ business regulations State tax requirements Sampling of state licensing & application fees Issue 6 (2016) Arkansas’ medical marijuana program is heavily regulated, with requirements regarding plant counts, lab testing, dosing standards, labeling, inventory, recordkeeping, inspections and more. The rules also include a provision that dispensaries must staff a “pharmacist consultant” who would be available by phone to the dispensary and patients during business hours. 4% privilege tax on all MMJ sold, plus 6.5% state sales tax and local sales taxes Application Dispensaries: $7,500 Cultivators: $15,000 License Dispensaries: $15,000 (new); $22,500 (annual renewal) Cultivators: $100,000 (new); $100,000 (annual renewal)   What to watch Expect some sort of action to occur around the number of open dispensaries. Arkansas’ 32 allowed dispensaries are distributed across eight regions of the state with four dispensaries allowed per region. Patients and regulators have expressed frustration over the length of time it has taken for the majority of the licensed dispensaries to come online. Regulators threated to take action against license holders if they had not made a concerted effort to open by the end of January. This might include refusal to reissue the licenses when they come up for renewal in June. Two additional dispensaries opened in January 2020, bringing the statewide total to 16, with two more passing final inspections but not yet open. With more than 36,000 patients enrolled by the end of January, the patient registry is likely to continue to grow—especially as dispensaries open in new areas and increase patient access. Monthly growth in patient counts in 2019 ranged from 8% to 15%; if patients join the registry at a rate of 8% growth per month, Arkansas could see a patient registry of 50,000 by May, one year after the start of legal medical marijuana sales. After a series of delays, Arkansas medical marijuana sales finally got off the ground in mid-May 2019 with just two dispensaries in operation and 12,000 patients in the state registry. Dispensaries continued to open across the state, though more slowly than anticipated, with only 14 of the 32 licensed retailers in operation by the end of the year. Even though fewer than half the allowed dispensaries opened, statewide cannabis sales exceeded $28 million, with 4,200 pounds of medical marijuana sold—a decent performance given the limitations posed by the lack of dispensaries. More than 24,000 new patients joined the registry between the sales launch and Jan. 31—for 203% growth over seven months. – Maggie Cowee MarketAtAGlance | Arkansas

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