DHSS announced that it will begin approving dispensary requests to convert their medical
license to allow adult use sales beginning today, Friday, February 3!
Missouri NORML applauds the fact that DHSS is going beyond what is required under Article XIV
by beginning adult use sales this weekend. DHSS will also begin accepting personal cultivation
applications on Friday, February 3. Article XIV requires DHSS to begin accepting those applications by
Monday, but they have announced that personal cultivation applications may be filed beginning Friday,
February 3. This represents a major landmark in the implementation of Missouri’s new Adult Use
Constitutional legalization.
With a great deal of attention going to the impending ability of medical marijuana facilities to expand
into adult use sales, this landmark development has gone largely unnoticed. Attorney Dan Viets,
Missouri NORML Coordinator, co-author of Article XIV and Chair of the Legal Missouri Campaign
Advisory Board, said, “Missouri NORML was especially concerned that the option for personal cultivation
of cannabis be included in Article XIV. The option to grow for oneself is a fundamental right which has
been part of legalization in the great majority of the 20 other states which have now taken the historic step of
repealing the criminal prohibition of responsible adult marijuana use.”
The fact that every adult in the state of Missouri will soon be able to cultivate cannabis for personal
use illustrates how consumer-friendly the language of Article XIV really is. Missouri NORML is also very
pleased with the rapid implementation in at least 46 Missouri counties of the automatic expungement
provisions of Article XIV.
As of Thursday, February 2, according to the Office of State Courts Administrator, 5,205 marijuana
expungements have already taken place. Eventually, nearly all marijuana cases will automatically be
expunged from all public records. The wording of Article XIV permits anyone with such an expungement of
a past marijuana conviction to deny that it ever occurred and prohibits anyone from being penalized for
failing to acknowledge such a past conviction.
What do you think?