Missouri House takes up marijuana legalization in push to sink ballot question

Cannabis activists lined up Tuesday to urge Missouri lawmakers to move quickly to fully legalize marijuana and derail a competing ballot initiative backed by existing medical marijuana businesses.

The Cannabis Freedom Act, sponsored by Rep. Ron Hicks, R-Defiance, combines numerous marijuana-related bills into one but at its core legalizes possession and use of the drug for individuals 21 and older.

Supporters said Missouri lawmakers should blunt momentum for Legal Missouri 2022, a campaign currently collecting signatures for the Nov. 8 ballot. That plan would give current medical marijuana businesses the first shot at full recreational sales and keep in place the state’s ability to limit licenses.

Hicks, during a hearing of the House Public Safety Committee, cast his bill as the last best shot for lawmakers to weigh in on the topic before voters do so through a proposed change to the state constitution. Medical marijuana was approved in 2018 when Missouri voters approved a constitutional change.

“I’m sure that every single one of you sitting here has received some type of an email,” Hicks said, “or has heard from somebody in this state about the rollout of that program, whether it was dishonest or not fair to someone.”

Hicks’ proposal doesn’t limit marijuana business licenses. It would allow home cultivators to possess up to 12 flowering plants and would permit dispensary sales to be taxed at up to 12%.

It eliminates civil asset forfeiture for marijuana and places regulation of the adult-use program under the control of the “Cannabis Enforcement Authority,” which would be housed in the Department of Agriculture.

The medical program is currently under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Senior Services, and Hicks’ bill doesn’t seek to alter the constitutionally approved system.

Hicks’ plan directs tax revenue to fund teacher salaries, first responder pensions and the Missouri Veterans Commission.

He said he was open to amendments. One possible change, Hicks said, involves some sort of license cap after speaking with a “young man” who was part of the industry. The business owner said the market already has enough marijuana, Hicks said.

“He would like to see that they get first dibs, maybe up front — in front of the line,” Hicks said.

“I can understand why they want that and I can actually even — I’m in talks with that.”

Speakers Tuesday morning railed against Legal Missouri 2022.

“This initiative (Legal Missouri 2022) eliminates nearly all competition through constitutionally protected license caps,” said Christina Thompson, with ShowMe Canna-Freedom, who spoke in favor of Hicks’ proposal.

“Recreational licenses created under the initiative will go straight to established businesses as well, meaning instead of opening up more business opportunities for others, money only goes to those who are already profiting.

“The lack of competition and artificially inflated prices fuel the black market,” she said.

“Millions in lost revenue for our state is instead funding drug cartels, human trafficking and more while desperate patients are victimized.”

Adela Wisdom criticized the state’s current prohibition on adult-use cannabis.

Wisdom is facing criminal charges after she and her husband, Aaron, were arrested in 2020 following a law enforcement raid of their Callaway County property. Law enforcement reported marijuana plants on their land, with a sheriff’s office lieutenant stating he saw Adela Wisdom rapidly uprooting the plants and Aaron Wisdom lighting them on fire, KRCG-TV reported. A jury trial in the case is scheduled for July.

At the time of her arrest, Adela Wisdom was running for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District; Aaron Wisdom was running for lieutenant governor.

She said Missouri’s current medical marijuana laws create two systems in which people without resources are still criminalized for the drug.

“The people (of) this state who are unable to pay, who are too sick, too poor and too ill to comply with your rules and your laws and your regulations are criminals because they couldn’t afford a license,” Wisdom said.

“That’s a regulatory issue, not a felonious crime.”

Trade group

Meanwhile, the group Real Legalization Missouri, posted a link to audio apparently recorded of Thomas Robbins, lobbyist for the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association and Legal Missouri 2022, strategizing with opponents of Hicks’ bill.

In the audio, Robbins compared proponents to a “clown car” and said opponents would come off as “the adults in the room” during the hearing. Robbins didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Tuesday.

Among those testifying against Hicks’ legalization bill was Joe Delia, chief operating officer of Root 66 Cannabis.

With about 38 grow operations, “the current supply has outpaced the demand,” Delia said. That’s without factoring in the roughly two dozen cultivators expected to come online sometime in the future.

Delia said, “We really probably have, right now, about half the capacity that we’re going to have in the current medical market.”

“When this market first opened, pounds of marijuana were selling for about $4,000,” he said.

“Now pounds of marijuana are selling for around $1,600, for medium- to lower-grade cannabis.”

“We’re going to be at $800 a pound before this stops, and that’s going to be very comparable to what you see on the West Coast,” he said.

“If you open that market up, I’m not sure what you’re going to have, other than what Oklahoma’s having right now,” he said. (Opponents deride the state’s medical program as the “Wild West.”)

Supporters of the state’s medical marijuana program, such as MoCannTrade, have hailed it as a success, calling attention to more than 6,000 industry jobs.

The industry reported its eighth straight month of sales exceeding $20 million in February, according to DHSS data.

“Missouri’s medical cannabis industry is delivering on its promise of not only providing safe, affordable and convenient access for patients but also helping to infuse the state’s economy with sizable investment and millions in new tax revenue,” Andrew Mullins, executive director of MoCannTrade, said in a press release last month.

The Legal Missouri campaign has said that while current medical marijuana licensees would be able to convert their medical licenses into comprehensive ones, so-called microlicenses would be available to historically disadvantaged groups in the recreational program’s first days.

“All new licenses for the first 548 days will be microlicenses reserved for smaller operators and individuals and groups who have been adversely affected by our current, unjust laws prohibiting marijuana,” said John Payne, campaign manager for Legal Missouri.

“As in most states, medical marijuana facilities will also start to convert their licenses to comprehensive licenses.”

Hicks’ proposal had 21 co-sponsors as of Tuesday, including eight Republicans. House Speaker Pro Tem John Wiemann, R-O’Fallon, and Reps. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, and Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, are backing the measure.

The legislation is House Bill 2704.