KANSAS CITY, Mo. — February 6 is the target date for people in the cannabis industry who believe they can start selling recreational cannabis in Missouri.
“No one has sent a message saying it’s the final day but as I understand the full licenses will be delivered on the 3rd and 6th – we will be able to sell,” said Rob Sullivan, owner of Fresh Green Dispensaries.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services told KSHB 41 News that 97 percent of medical cannabis dispensaries have applied to extend their licenses to include recreational ones.
The state has until Feb. 6 to approve or deny their applications.
Whether it’s flowers, vapes, edibles, or even sparkling water, it will all be available to Missourians or anyone else. You just need a valid ID and you must be at least 21 years old.
“Any state. It could be a passport. It just has to be a valid, unexpired ID,” Sullivan said. “When you come to recess, bring your license and cash.”
Without a medical card, you can purchase up to three ounces at a time.
However, Sullivan says there is still an advantage to getting a card.
“With a health card, the minimum limit is six ounces and you can get up to four times [possession] limit,” Sullivan said.
He says a card could also take away any uncertainty should you be stopped by the police.
“Most of them in the bigger municipalities and in the state they don’t take it personally — go ahead and let them go if they have that health card,” Sullivan said of law enforcement.
Sullivan says the product is better now that growers have gotten into a rut since meds kicked in two years ago.
“A thousand percent,” Sullivan said. “The first product we had was the flower. To be honest, it was take what you can get. Take what you get and don’t get mad, that’s what it was. Now we have, we just took inventory last week , I think we have 400 different products with cannabis and now they are good. The flower is getting really good”.
When the medicine sales started, only one company was supplying flowers and it was their second crop, Sullivan said. It takes a few crops to get a good product.
“Now, there are eight, 10 growers who get it right,” Sullivan said. “I think we have a great product now, as good as anywhere else.”
Some dispensary owners also own cultivation and production facilities where they grow cannabis and process some of the product into oils and edibles.
Fresh Green gets its product from Illicit and Clovr, and Sullivan says they’ve ramped up production.
“There will be large orders coming in this week and we have some secured suppliers, Illicit and Clovr and those are two of the best companies in the state anyway, so we’re in pretty good shape,” Sullivan said.
Its Lee’s Summit location was the first to have a drug sale two years ago, and the line was so long that it ran all the way down 291 Highway. Sullivan anticipates long lines for the first recreational sales, but doesn’t expect to sell out.
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