Recreational Marijuana in Missouri Will Have to Wait, Medical Still on Schedule

Today was supposed to be a big day for marijuana advocates. April 20th, aka 4/20, is symbolically important in 2020. However, with most Americans under a stay-at-home order 420 celebrations will be held online — or privately at home.

A couple of months ago a group announced plans to gather signatures to put recreational marijuana legalization on Missouri’s ballot in November. As you can imagine, physically gathering signatures is impossible during an epidemic.

A group called Missourians for a New Approach committee announced Wednesday that it “simply cannot succeed in gathering sufficient signatures” amid restrictions that closed business and forced people to stay home. The group had faced a deadline of May 3 to collect 170,000 signatures.

“We had hoped that it might be possible to persuade the state of Missouri to allow online signature gathering under the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in this spring,” the group said in a statement.

But state officials said no, and the group said “there does not appear to be any other path.” The statement said that the group hoped that the campaign would resume next year, with the goal of placing the issue of whether to legalize the use of marijuana for those 21 or older on the November 2022 ballot. (KY3 Springfield)

The stay-at-home order in the City of St. Louis began four weeks ago today, at 6pm. Even before then I was hoping to begin seeing changes at the future grow location near our apartment in the Columbus Square neighborhood. Nothing to date. I haven’t driven around to the other sites that have been awarded licenses for growing, processing, etc.

Despite the pandemic medical marijuana is still on track in Missouri.

“The coronavirus pandemic hit just about the time the new multi-million dollar medical marijuana industry was trying to get off ground in Missouri.

More than 300 cultivators, manufacturers and dispensaries were all awarded licenses shortly before the pandemic. Voters approved marijuana for medical use in 2018.

This is the phase when all these facilities are trying to get permits and begin construction or renovation. They also need the state to do final site visits before they can begin operations.” (Fox 4 Kansas City)

Hopefully this new industry will stay on track, providing needed medical marijuana for patients and quality jobs.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: Missouri Should Not Wait On Marijuana Legalization

A number of years ago marijuana legalization proponents wanted to put the issue on the ballot, but the statewide polling showed it wouldn’t pass. Rather than face a certain loss, they waited. Many of us who’d hoped for full legalization were disappointed by the delay, but we understood why.

Then they realized starting with medical marijuana first, as other states had done, was the way to go. They sponsored one of several medical marijuana ballot initiatives that were on our November 2018 ballot — there’s was the one to pass.

Proponents of recreational marijuana legalization in Missouri have launched a campaign to place a question on the state’s November ballot.

Backers will have to move fast. To make the November ballot, the campaign Missourians for a New Approach will have to turn in more than 160,000 signatures by May.

That gives campaign workers just three full months for signature collection; a medical marijuana campaign spent much more time in 2017 and 2018 gathering signatures. (Post-Dispatch)

With a majority of Americans living in a state with some form of legal weed attitudes are changing. Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has pledged to legalize weed nationwide on his first day as president, through executive order.

A majority of readers in the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll agree Missouri should move ahead on legalization.

Q: Agree or disagree: Missouri needs to wait a few years before considering legalization of marijuana for recreational use.

• Strongly agree: 6 [21.43%]
• Agree: 1 [3.57%]
• Somewhat agree: 2 [7.14%]
• Neither agree or disagree: 0 [0%]
• Somewhat disagree: 1 [3.57%]
• Disagree: 8 [28.57%]
• Strongly disagree: 10 [35.71%]
• Unsure/No Answer: 0 [0%]

I’ll post again when petitions are available to sign,

— Steve Patterson

Future Medical Marijuana Cultivation Locations in the City of St. Louis

Last week Missouri announced which applicants will be awarded licenses to grow medical marijuana.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced the winning 60 applicants for cultivation facilities sought by an estimated 500 companies hoping to cash in on the legalization of pot.
Approval of the growing operations comes just days after the state awarded licenses to companies seeking to transport cannabis products. Among those are companies in St. Louis, Festus, Eureka and Florissant. (Post-Dispatch)

Seven licensees will be located in the City of St. Louis.  Three will operate out of the same large warehouse, so there’s five total locations.

I decided to look into each location.

7110-7140 North Broadway

• Property Owner: 7110 North Broadway LLC  (Sauget IL)
• Year Built: 3 buildings in 1941, and 1 in 1947
• Neighborhood: North Riverfront
• Ward: 2nd
• Applicants: Kindbio LLC (7110), Certified Alternative Medicine (7140), VMO-Ops Inc. (7110)
• Comments: I imagine the Broadway facade was originally a beige brick, though perhaps reddish. Located across Broadway from Bellefontaine Cemetery, this location has easy highway access. Separate licenses have been issued to companies that will transport cannabis product, so having three facilities at one location may prove advantageous from a logistical perspective.

3417 South Broadway (part of the large Lemp Brewery complex)

• Property Owner: Historic Lemp Brewery LLC
• Year Built: Early 20th century
• Neighborhood: Marine Villa
• Ward: 9th
• Applicant: Blue Arrow Holdings LLC
• Comments: This is large building, though small compared to others on the former Lemp Brewery site. My guess is this will give this cultivator room to expand as demand warrants.

1315 Cherokee St

• Property Owner: Mound City Partners LLC
• Year Built: 1966
• Neighborhood: Benton Park
• Ward: 9th
• Applicant: BeLeaf Medical LLC
• Comments: Local news reports showed cute storefronts near Jefferson when mentioning one cultivation facility would be on Cherokee Street, another showed the north side of the Lemp Brewery across the street. This is the most out of character property on Cherokee Street.

1400 North 7th Street

• Property Owner: Northside Regeneration (Paul McKee)
• Year Built: 1959
• Neighborhood: Columbus Square
• Ward: 5th
• Applicant: TC AppliCo LLC
• Comments: This is just around the corner from our apartment, so I was hoping this applicant would be approved. Will be nice seeing it occupied.

2727 Hamilton Ave

• Property Owner: St. Louis’ Land Reutilization Authority (LRA)
• Year Built: 1923
• Neighborhood: Wells-Goodfellow
• Ward: 22nd
• Applicant: Growing Jobs Missouri LLC
• Comments: This is probably the most ambitious/challenging location of this list — but easily one of the most interesting architecturally. A 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance map indicates the adjacent warehouses were part of A. Leschen and Sons Rope — manufacturers of wire rope and tramways, etc.  The building is very open — literally. Hopefully renovations can happen quickly, though not sure how long it will take for the applicant to secure title from the LRA. The Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood made headlines earlier this year after a concentrated effort to raze buildings deemed beyond renovation — see Options For The Wells Goodfellow Neighborhood. It would be great if, as the applicant name suggests, this location generated new jobs for local residents.

So there you have it, the five city locations for the seven applicants recently awarded cultivation licenses. All will need investment to get ready to operate as an indoor growing operation. As this is a new highly-competitive business we will have to see how each performs, it’s possible not all will survive their initial first year or two in business.  Others may thrive and need to expand in place, or relocate to larger facilities.

Really looking forward to seeing where the city’s dispensaries will be located.

— Steve Patterson