Only a third of the applicants to sell medical marijuana in the Kansas City area will receive licenses from the state this year, reflecting stiff competition as marijuana firms look to enter one of Missouri’s most lucrative markets.
Lyndall Fraker, director of Missouri’s new medical marijuana program, told The Kansas City Star that the city’s congressional district will get 24 licenses, but 73 have applied. Kansas City is Missouri’s most-populous municipality.
The state will start vetting applications to grow, process or sell medical marijuana products on Aug. 3 and make decisions by the end of December.
About 500 individuals and groups have applied for licenses in the state.
A large portion of the applicants are multistate operators, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which won a lawsuit to obtain the list.
Fraker said an independent third party with no stake in any of the license applications will be in charge of scoring them to determine who gets a license.
The scorers won’t see the names of the applicants.
– Associated Press and Marijuana Business Daily
How craft cannabis businesses are catering to consumers' desire for high end, small batch products.
Just want to clarify for the viewers. At this point no groups have applied for licenses in Missouri. Groups have pre-paid application fees and are eligible to submit their applications between August 3-17. There is an RFP out from the state but no group has been chosen to grade the applications as of yet. Hopefully just after August 17, graders will begin processing applications and will elect 24 dispensary winners in each congressional district by December 31st.