Missouri, as it pertains to the cannabis market, is a pretty well-known model. “I’m interested in doing an extremely deep dive.”
By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent
This month, the New York-based Cannabis Public Policy Consulting LLC won a contract to analyze Missouri’s cannabis market over the coming year.
A press release released by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services stated that the $238.700 contract awarded to the group to carry out an economic-impact analysis will allow the state to decide “whether it is necessary to provide additional licenses for cannabis establishments and, in this case, whether they will need to be issued, and where and what type of facility.”
Department rules currently allow only a small number of licenses beyond the minimal requirements set forth by the Constitutional amendments, which allowed for the legalization of medical marijuana and then recreational marijuana.
A total of 400 licenses have been issued by the Department for dispensaries, cultivation facilities, and manufacturing plants. For example, the rules allow for 27 licenses per district in the eight districts of California, while the Constitution only requires 24.
The state is also planning to have up to 144 licenses for microbusinesses. These are small and limited, and intended as a benefit for business owners who face disadvantages.
Missouri, in its second year as a legal state for adult use marijuana, recorded total sales of $1.46 billion. It outperformed states that have had a more extensive history with marijuana legalization, such as Arizona, Colorado and Nevada.
Mackenzie Slade told The Independent that Missouri was a model for cannabis markets. “So, I am very interested in getting into a really deep dive.”
This spring three companies vied for this contract. According to state bid evaluation, one applicant, Oregon’s Whitney Economics, conducted cannabis studies worldwide but did not meet a requirement regarding managers.
Capital Consulting Services of St. Louis, Missouri is a minority-owned enterprise certified by the Missouri Department of Commerce. They have been helping governments for over 15 years with their economic feasibility studies on both a federal and state level. Slade’s group was outbid by the St. Louis-based Capital Consulting Services, which submitted a $360,000 higher bid. The company also did not have much experience in studying cannabis markets.
Cannabis Public Policy Consulting, founded in 2019, is a “100% women-owned collective” of researchers and data scientists. Public health professionals are also included.
According to the contract, before becoming an LLC, this group of experts worked as a consultant team that was incubated and supervised by Advocates for Human Potential Inc., producing similar reports for around 12 cannabis regulators over the course of the last six-year period. The contract states that this includes Maine, Maryland Virginia Oklahoma New Mexico Michigan Utah and Utah.
The document states: “CPPC provided the exact services outlined by the RFP for a dozen contracts with the government; including demand and supply assessments, and modeling predictively.”
Slade’s firm administers a nationwide survey about cannabis usage, which measures and quantifies the demand behaviour of consumers. She said that one of the purposes for which they utilize it at a federal level is to determine how each state performs based on its policies.
“And Missouri continuously outperforms other states, relative to their date of sale,” she told The Independent, “…because they were able to stand up a market so quickly.”
She said that this was partly because Missouri only allowed a limited number of licenses in order to be operational within a short period. Slade’s study would use state track and trace data in order to measure the effectiveness of each license.
She said, “That is a great example where we could uncover important policy considerations.” The study’s goal, I believe, is to update policy areas that are outdated.
Most experts agree that Missouri’s decision not to grant more licenses than what was allowed by the constitution is the reason for the boom in the marijuana industry. Critics have long claimed that this decision has created a monopoly, which is preventing people from gaining employment who are most affected by the drug war. The 2022 constitution included a microbusiness licensing program to help address inequality. However, due to the restrictions on the businesses’ activities it is difficult for them to make a profit.
The department must award at least 50% of its additional licenses to the owners of microbusiness cannabis facilities which have been operating for atleast a year.
According to a press release from the state, the study will provide additional information about the economic stability and strengths of the regulated markets, as well as the risks they pose. It will place a particular emphasis on how the market impacts economically challenged areas in the state.
The constitution requires that the department develops a plan “to promote and encourage the ownership and employment of people in the marijuana industries from political divisions and districts which are economically distresses.”
The release says that “the study will provide relevant information” for creating and implementing a similar plan.
The original publication of this story is Missouri Independent.
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Mike Latimer is the photographer.