Robust medical marijuana program will lead to record-fast implementation of adult use marijuana sales in Missouri

In November, five states voted on legalizing marijuana, with only Missouri and Maryland voters approving the measures. According to the Washington Post, Maryland adult use marijuana sales are expected to start in 2024 at the earliest, while adult use sales in Missouri are expected to start in early February.

Today marks the first day Missouri adults can legally possess up to three ounces of marijuana, along with the start of the process to automatically expunge tens of thousands of past, nonviolent marijuana offenses from Missourians records. Missouri was the first state to pass automatic marijuana expungements by a vote of the people.

MoCannTrade, the state’s leading marijuana trade association, says the 205,000 Missouri patients with medical marijuana cards are to thank for Missouri’s record-fast implementation.

   

“Missouri is able to transition from medical marijuana to adult use sales quicker than almost any other state precisely because of the robust program almost 400 Missouri small businesses and over 200,000 Missouri patients have built,” said Andrew Mullins, MoCannTrade’s Executive Director. “From the 10,000 marijuana industry jobs already created in Missouri to the $27 million in veterans’ health care funding that has been generated so far, Missouri’s robust medical marijuana industry is providing safe, lab-tested medicine to patients, while helping boost the economies of communities across Missouri. Today is a historic day for marijuana supporters in Missouri and the start of a clean slate for tens of thousands of Missourians who will see past, nonviolent marijuana automatically expunged from their records.”

Missouri’s medical marijuana stats include:

  • 66% of Missourians voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2018.
  • A 2019 study by a University of Missouri Economics Professor predicted there would be just 26,000 Missouri medical marijuana patients by 2022.
  • Currently Missouri has 205,897 patients. From kicking opioid addictions to helping with chronic pain, Missouri’s medical cannabis program is helping the lives of patients in every corner of our state.
  • Missourians have now purchased $565 million worth of lab tested, regulated, taxed medical cannabis safely in their own communities.
  • In 2022 alone, sales are expected to exceed $380 million.
  • The 4% medical marijuana tax has already generated $27 million for veterans’ health care in Missouri.
  • The creation of this brand-new industry has already generated an estimated $1.2 billion in direct spending to build facilities.
  • The program has 400+ Missouri small businesses in every corner of the state.
  • Already 10,000 marijuana industry jobs have been created in Missouri. In 2021, one out of every ten new jobs created in Missouri was in the marijuana industry.