Rep. Ron Hicks (R) is sponsoring the Missouri “Cannabis Freedom Act,” which advanced out of the House Public Safety Committee on a narrow vote late last month and has now been approved by the Rules – Legislative Oversight Committee in a 6-4 vote, according to Marijuana Moment.
Under Missouri’s constitution, residents who have cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, and 20 other conditions, can purchase or cultivate medical marijuana with a physician’s certification.
The session is set to end on May 13, so time is running out. Though it’s not the first or last legislative move made in Missouri recently. Hill’s bill also highlights opportunities for expungements, social consumption facilities, and tax deductions for cannabis business.
What will the Missouri Cannabis Freedom Act do?
- Possession, home cultivation and licensing:
- Allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess cannabis from licensed retailers.
- Adults could also cultivate up to 12 plants for personal use.
- Equity and reform
- Expungement provisions:
- People with non-violent marijuana convictions over activities made legal under the bill will be able to petition the courts for record clearing.
- Those currently incarcerated would also be eligible for resentencing, and those on probation or parole would be allowed to use marijuana.
- Police would not be allowed to use the odor of marijuana alone to conduct a warrantless search of a person’s private property under the legislation.
- Cannabis could not be used in family court proceedings.
- Medical cannabis patient information cannot be shared with federal authorities.
- Taxation, banking and social use:
- The state Department of Revenue would set a tax rate for adult-use marijuana sales that could not exceed 12 percent.
- No tax on medical cannabis products.
- Hicks’s bill also adopts a provision from a separate cannabis bill that would allow for “hospitality permits” so that hotels, bars and restaurants could “sell and serve marijuana or marijuana products in private events or venues.”
- Expungement provisions:
Where will the money go?
- Tax dollars that the state generates from the recreational market would be deposited into a “Cannabis Freedom Fund,” with revenue first covering the administrative costs of implementing the marijuana program.
- Remaining revenue would be divided equally between:
- teachers’ salaries
- first responders’ pensions
- Missouri veterans commission
- Remaining revenue would be divided equally between:
- Licensed marijuana businesses would also be able to make tax deductions with the state up to the amount that they’d otherwise be eligible for under federal law if they were operating in a federally legal industry.
What’s next?
Hicks said in an earlier cosponsorship memo to colleagues that his omnibus bill as drafted was “not perfect.” Looks like Missouri will find out how lawmakers feel in just a few weeks. Stay tuned to the greenpass blog for updates about the Missouri Cannabis Freedom Act and what it means for the future of the medical marijuana in Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has to date approved the opening of 322 facilities. This is including 185 dispensaries, 63 infused product manufacturers, and 46 marijuana cultivation facilities.
DHSS has licensed and certified a total of 386 facilities to cultivate, manufacture, test, transport and dispense medical marijuana to Missouri patients.
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