Missouri opened its first medical marijuana dispensary last October and now there are more than 140 across the state, with more to come. The state’s medical cannabis industry employs roughly 5,000 people. Earlier this summer, Governor Mike Parson vetoed a bill that would have allowed medical marijuana business owners to deduct their expenses, but the head of the state program says that won’t stop the multi-million-dollar industry. “The sales revenue is pleasantly surprising,” Lyndall Fraker, director of the section of medical marijuana with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said. “At the end of July, we surpassed $91 million in sales.” Voters in the Show Me State passed an amendment in 2018 legalizing medical marijuana. Missouri was the 33rd state to legalize cannabis as medicine. Fraker said all medical marijuana sold in the state is grown in Missouri. “The amendment that was voted on said that we should open the minimum number at least, which was 192 dispensaries,” Fraker said. “As of today, we have 142 open We’ve done the math and based on the number of quantities that each patient can purchase each month, how much product it would take to serve the patient base and we think we are going to be good for five or six years,” Fraker said he believes the other 50 dispensaries could be open by the end of the year. In the month of August, the industry generated more than $113 million.
Mmp News Author, Medical Marijuana Program Connection, 09/06/2021 21:32:00