SMM releases guidance letter on pre-rolls

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Section for Medical Marijuana released their eighth guidance letter on Monday, September 28, 2020.

Delivered to facility contact points at 5:00 p.m., the new letter specifically counts out dispensaries from making pre-rolls on site as a patient service, denoting that Missouri’s constitutional program only gives manufacturers the right to make any product.

The letter also says that all products must be sold in their final form, raising some questions from the industry as to whether deli-style product will be allowed to be sold, due to the marijuana flower being packaged on-site and made into a product.

The Department said the confusion seems to be coming from the Department’s reminder that products sold in dispensaries must be tested in their final form before arriving at the dispensary.

Mandatory testing requirements in 19 CSR 30-95.070(4)(A) say: “Testing facilities shall test all lots of medical marijuana produced by cultivation or infused products manufacturing facilities.  Testing shall only be performed on the final medical marijuana product equivalent to what will be dispensed to the patient.”

“Nothing has changed about our previous guidance on deli-style dispensing, which we do not view as changing the product after testing,” said Lisa Cox, spokesperson for DHSS. “The requirement that medical marijuana is in its final form before sale also does not affect packaging guidance. The requirement is about the product itself and not its packaging.”

   

The letter comes within weeks of Missouri’s first dispensaries being notified they had passed commencement inspection and were approved to operate.

Missouri’s first testing lab approved to operate, EKG Labs, was commenced on Friday, September 25.

As of the letter, Missouri has 11 facilities total approved to operate, including 5 cultivators, 5 dispensaries, and 1 testing lab.

The timeline for testing of legally cultivated marijuana is not overnight, but the first legal sale is expected in the next weeks.

Read the full guidance letter below.