The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled against a medical cannabis license applicant in a long-running licensing dispute, reversing an appeals court decision that said the company should be granted a license.
Mo Cann Do had originally been denied a medical marijuana cultivation license by Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).
The company’s 2019 application lacked a required piece of paperwork and was rejected, but the DHSS did not notify the company of that specific problem with its application.
Mo Cann Do appealed to an administrative hearing commission, which sided with the DHSS.
A circuit court upheld that opinion.
However, Missouri’s Eastern District Court of Appeals ruled in 2023 that the company should be issued a license.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, the state’s top court ruled unanimously to affirm the circuit court’s judgement against Mo Cann Do, the Missouri Independent reported.
“The (administrative hearing commission) decision finding (Mo Cann Do) failed to meet a minimum standard for licensure is supported by competent and substantial evidence,” Missouri Supreme Court Judge W. Brent Powell wrote in the ruling.
“If the Court of Appeals ruling had been allowed to stand, the state argued it would have been forced to award marijuana licenses to applicants who might not have even gotten the necessary scores in 2019,” according to the Missouri Independent.
The latest court decision is one of a number of legal battles surrounding the medical marijuana industry in Missouri.
