Missouri marijuana regulators attend CANNRA

At the beginning of the month, regulators from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Section for Medical Marijuana Regulation joined cannabis regulators from around the country for the first Cannabis Regulators Association (CANNRA) External Stakeholders Meeting which took place in Seattle, Washington. 

CANNRA formed in November 2020, with cannabis regulators from 19 states: Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, and Washington, serving as the founding members, in an effort to better share institutional knowledge and regulatory best practices to assist federal, state, and local jurisdictions in matters regarding the legalization of cannabis.

The External Stakeholders Meeting, which took place over two days, invited regulators and stakeholders from around the country to discuss cannabis legalization, the obstacles and struggles legalization and implementation bring at a state- level, and offered an opportunity for participants to hear solutions, exchange ideas, and interact with others in similar roles. 

Section for Medical Marijuana Regulation Director, Lyndall Fraker, told Greenway, “Our team found the CANNRA annual meetings to be extremely valuable for sharing best practices and discussing regulatory challenges with other states’ cannabis regulators.” 

   

“Many challenges and responsibilities are common to cannabis regulation across states, and this national collaboration between regulatory leaders offers a unique opportunity to share ideas and resources in order to better fulfill our mission here in Missouri.”

Prior to the launch of Missouri’s medical marijuana program, Fraker and others within the Department reached out to regulators and stakeholders in other states who had already implemented medical marijuana programs in an effort to find creative solutions without attempting to reinvent the wheel. At that time, there was no uniform association or resource for cannabis regulators in the United States.

The External Stakeholders Meeting focused on an array of topics from consumer safety and preventing youth access to standardization in cannabis regulation and social equity issues in the cannabis space, while also focusing on issues like interstate commerce and the impact and rise of novel hemp cannabinoids such as Delta-8.