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.
By contrast, the mostly rural 6th Congressional district north of Kansas City has only 17 applications.
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
