ST. LOUIS — Starting Thursday, budding entrepreneurs can apply for a marijuana microbusiness license.
The idea behind these microbusiness licenses is to give back to the communities that were harmed by marijuana prohibition and even have some of the owners be people who were previously in jail for marijuana offenses.
Marijuana advocates say Missouri marijuana microbusiness licenses are important to bring some balance into the cannabis industry.
“We think everyone recognizes the fundamental injustice of the fact that roughly two and a half times more African Americans have been arrested historically in Missouri for marijuana offenses than European Americans,” MO NORML Attorney Dan Viets said. "And there's no justification for that. Blacks and whites use marijuana at almost exactly the same rate."
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services will be awarding microbusiness licenses to 48 entrepreneurs, and they will be split up across Missouri’s eight congressional districts. There will be six per district, and four of those will be wholesale businesses that can both manufacture products and cultivate the plant.
“They can cultivate up to 250 flowering plants, whereas the comprehensive licenses can cultivate up to 30,000 square feet,” Managing Partner of Amendment 2 Consultants John Payne said.
The other two in each district will be retail storefronts selling products directly from micro wholesalers.
“The micro-business licenses will be an isolated economy unto themselves,” Viets said.
To qualify for a microbusiness license, you have to meet at least one requirement off a list which includes things like being a disabled veteran, you or someone in your family having a marijuana-related arrest or conviction or wanting to set up shop in a zip code with a high incarceration rate.
“There's a $1500 application fee, but it will be refunded If you do not get a license in this round,” Viets said.
Along with that, you have to have a series of documents including a floor plan of the proposed business and where you plan to put it.
But even the best applications are left up to chance. The health department will send qualified applications to the Missouri Lottery to randomly select the winners.
“Your chances of winning are exactly the same as every other person who has qualified for the lottery,” Viets said.
Applications open through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services website this Thursday, and people have until Aug. 10 to get them in.
If you don’t get selected this time, you can reapply for the next round next year.
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