Business
10% Of All New Jobs in This State are from the Cannabis Industry – Guess Which State?
Nearly one in ten of new jobs created in Missouri are now from the cannabis industry
Legal marijuana benefits business. Almost one in ten new jobs in Missouri are associated with the state’s freshly operational medical marijuana business, according to a study of state labour. According to year-end state employment figures, Missouri’s medicinal cannabis business contributed to roughly one out of every ten new jobs statewide in 2021, adding close to 7,000 employees in its first complete year of operation.
From December 2020 to December 2021, the state of Missouri added 77,600 new employment, as reported by the Missouri Department of Labor.
Likewise, the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services said in January that 6,596 state agent ID cards for employees of medicinal cannabis operations had been issued. Since retail sales began in late October 2020, all but a tiny percentage of those cards have been distributed.
CANNABIS OPERATION IN MISSOURI MARKET
The significant job growth represents just the most recent indicator of success for a 21st-century business that has attracted almost 170,000 certified caregivers and patients and will surpass $200 million in retail sales in 2021.
Missouri’s medical cannabis business is delivering on its promise to not only provide safe, inexpensive, and convenient access for patients but also to help infuse the state’s economy with large investments and millions in additional tax income, stated the executive director of MoCannTrade (The Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association) Andrew Mullins.
322 establishments, including 185 dispensaries, 63 makers of infused products, and 46 marijuana production facilities, have received approval from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to open as of this year.
To cultivate, produce, test, transport, and dispense medicinal marijuana to patients in Missouri, a total of 386 facilities have received licenses and certifications from DHSS.
Jay Patel, CEO of Green Releaf Dispensaries, faced a steep hiring curve when he opened six retail locations from the ground – up in Mexico, Nevada, Troy, Columbia, Moberly, and Liberty. He also encountered thousands of applicants who were drawn in by the prospect of working for a start-up company with years or even decades of growth ahead.
He declared that medical cannabis is, without a doubt, the most significant communal investment the state of Missouri has seen in recent memory. The disproportionate economic impact is especially noticeable in tiny communities like Humansville, which has a population of 1,051 and is home to Flora Farms.
The Polk County hamlet now offers residents an alternative to travelling 100 miles round way to work in Springfield thanks to its growing facility and dispensary, as well as more than 200 employees spread across its activities. According to Flora Farms CEO Mark Hendren, the company received more than 1,000 applications from people interested in working at Humansville, as well as at its dispensaries in Springfield and Neosho.
Residents of Missouri with glaucoma, epilepsy, cancer and 20 other qualifying diseases may buy or grow medicinal marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation under Article IX of the state constitution. The law also gives doctors permission to accredit patients who suffer from other chronic and severe illnesses that could be helped by medicinal marijuana, and it safeguards their right to have these discussions.
MEDICAL CANNABIS TRADE ASSOCIATION
The Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association, often known as MoCannTrade, is a group of entrepreneurs, professionals in the medical field, patients, and locals that are working to make Missouri’s medical marijuana program a success.
A board of diversified individuals with expertise in medical cannabis, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, law, agriculture, science, law enforcement, security, public affairs, commercial real estate, and regulatory sectors oversees the membership-based organization.
Nearly 7,000 employment, or 10% of all new jobs in Missouri, were created in the first full year of medical marijuana operations in 2021, according to the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association (MoCannTrade).
Some of those positions have gone to Raymore. The Source, a medical marijuana dispensary, opened its doors in Raymore in December. It is housed in the former Steak’ n Shake facility off 58 Highway. The city has gained 15 jobs for people as a result.
Medical marijuana has added not only jobs but also some new inhabitants to Raymore. In response to a job opening at The Source, at least one individual relocated from outside the state to Raymore. The fact that The Source is situated in Arkansas implies that both individuals and corporations believe Raymore has a promising future.
PETITION FOR RECREATIONAL CANNABIS
The state’s economy may benefit from petitions to make marijuana usage legal for recreational purposes in Missouri, which are now circulating. If one of three initiative petitions is approved by a majority of voters and appears on the November ballot, Missouri might gain even more employment and tax revenue.
‘Legal Missouri’s initiative’, which is one of the three proposed petitions, will do the following:
-Make marijuana legal for adult use (21 and older).
-Allow Missouri residents who have committed nonviolent marijuana-related charges to have their records automatically sealed.
-Put a 6% state tax on cannabis purchases made at retail. Admin fees and processing costs for automatic expungements are covered. The remaining surplus will be distributed equally among Missouri’s underfunded public defence system, drug addiction treatment, and healthcare for veterans.
-Permit local governments to levy up to 3% in local sales taxes.
-New business licenses: Aims to increase industry involvement among disadvantaged groups and small business owners, such as veterans with disabilities, people from high-poverty areas, and people who have previously been charged for nonviolent cannabis offences.
-Lottery: A random lottery will be used to choose all new license holders.
-Increase the validity of ID cards for medicinal marijuana patients and caregivers to three years from one year while maintaining a reasonable price ($25). Missouri residents who opt to produce medical cannabis at home will pay a 50% reduction in the existing $100 charge, and the three-year expiration period will also be included.
-Allow local communities to choose not to participate in adult-use retail cannabis sales by popular vote.
BOTTOM LINE
As a result of the legalization of marijuana, the state of Missouri is experiencing a flush of new job opportunities with medical cannabis across the state, generally improving the economy by providing employment and generating income for the state.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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