Missouri denies medical marijuana patients the same rights as other cannabis consumers

Due to a misinterpretation of the Missouri Constitution’s Article XIV, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Division of Cannabis Regulation, has restricted the ability of medical marijuana patients to purchase and possess cannabis below the amount that all other persons above the age of 21 in Missouri are allowed to purchase.

When Section 1 of Article XIV was passed by Missouri voters back in 2018, it did indeed set a lower purchase amount per medical marijuana patient, only up to six ounces per month. However, when Missouri voters passed Article 14, Section 2 in November of 2022, the Missouri Constitution was amended to allow all persons over the age of 21 to purchase larger amounts of cannabis than the original medical provision did, three ounces per purchase, per day.

Since that law was passed subsequently, it should be seen to override the conflicting provision of Section 1. The great majority of medical marijuana patients are persons over the age of 21. It is absurd to deny them the same rights to purchase and possess cannabis which all other persons over the age of 21 enjoy under Article XIV.

   

Missouri NORML leaders participated in the drafting of both Section 1 and Section 2 of Article XIV. The intent of the drafters of Article XIV was that patients would be granted the same rights to purchase cannabis as all other persons over the age of 21. Unless the Department of Health and Senior Services changes its interpretation of Article XIV, it may be necessary to ask the Courts of our state to clarify what the law actually means.