Missouri regulators approved eight Kansas City-area locations to serve as medical marijuana transportation facilities and have begun notifying winners of grower licenses.
The Department of Health and Senior Services announced Thursday that it has begun issuing licenses for medical marijuana cultivation facilities. In a release, the department said the 60 licenses are being awarded to the facilities that scored highest in a blind review.
State officials expect to be finished notifying approved and denied applicants by the end of the week. It then will post scores for all applicants on its website.
Missouri law limits cultivators to 30,000 square feet of flowering plant canopy space for indoor facilities, no more than 2,800 flowering plants for outdoor facilities and either 30,000 square feet of plant canopy space or 2,800 flowering plants for greenhouses. More than one licensee can operate in the same growing facility, with the limits multiplied by the number of licenses.
On Monday, the DHSS issued a list of 21 approved applications and three denied medical marijuana transportation applications. Licensed transporters can move medical marijuana from cultivators to makers of marijuana-infused products, dispensaries and to qualified patients and caregivers.
Unlike other medical marijuana licenses, there is no set number of licenses for facilities used to move medical marijuana among cultivators, infused-product makers and dispensaries.
The state will accept additional transportation license applications, and said it will review them as they are submitted.
- Area facility applications approved are:
- Charas Capital LLC, Lot 1 of the Hydro Conduit Subdivision, Riverside
- Missouri Made Marijuana LLC, 8651 Hillcrest Road, Kansas City
- Red Eye Transport LLC, 5620 E. Missouri Highway 150, Kansas City
- KC Cann Transport LLC, 401 NW 10th St., Blue Springs
- Next Wave MO LLC, 14655 Prospect Ave., Kansas City
- Taney Street Nursery LLC, 1251 Taney St., North Kansas City
- Missouri Hemp Improvement Co., 1520 Swift Ave., North Kansas City
- CLS Med-Can Logistics LLC,Kansas City
Of the three applications denied, one was in the Kansas City area: The World of Comfort LLC, 11732 Blue Ridge Blvd., Kansas City.
The state’s medical marijuana law puts a heavy emphasis on security for transportation facilities and vehicles.
Facilities must maintain trip logs and move medical marijuana to its destination within 24 hours of pickup. The vehicles used cannot be marked to indicate that they’re transporting medical marijuana and must have locked compartments for marijuana and payments, along with video monitoring systems.