Missouri’s Recreational Cannabis Sales Off to Strong Start
Missourians voted to pass Constitutional Amendment 3 in 2022 with sales of recreational cannabis beginning in February 2023.
Adding together recreational and medical cannabis, sales in Missouri reached $350 million and is expected to continue to grow, potentially reaching $1 billion by the end of the year (1).
“We didn’t know if Amendment 3 was going to pass,” Nicholas Rinella, CEO of Hippos Cannabis said (1). “Once it did pass, what the industry had expected was a 2.5 times bump in sales. And it ended up being closer to five to six times.” Amendment 3 passed in late 2022 with 53% in favor (2). Medical cannabis was legalized in 2018 with 60% in favor (2).
In comparison, sales in neighboring Illinois reached $300 within seven months of beginning recreational sales and hit $1.6 billion two years later (1).
Increased demand has led to the need for businesses to expand. At the end of February, DHSS had 121 pending requests for facilities, the majority being for cultivation facilities, dispensaries, and manufacturing sites, plus several for transportation and one testing facility (1). “DHSS is in the process of hiring a large amount of new staff to handle the increase in workload associated with the new law,” DHSS spokeswoman Lisa Cox said (1). “The Division of Cannabis Regulation is about 30% through their hiring plan and expect to be fully staffed by the end of the year.”
References
Ep 24, Part II: Data Transparency in Cannabis Testing with Yasha Khan
December 12th 2024Evan Friedmann and Yasha Kahn, co-founder of MCR Labs, discuss the discrepancies between current regulations and data on mycotoxins and pesticides in cannabis products. They highlight the need for updated regulations based on new data, emphasizing the importance of accurate testing and labeling. They also discuss the issue of result manipulation, particularly in THC content, and the need for public health officials to address this. Yasha suggests making testing data public to enhance oversight and suggests a national entity to manage this data for better consistency and public safety.
Ep 24, Part I: Data Transparency in Cannabis Testing with Yasha Khan
November 21st 2024Evan Friedmann interviews Yasha Khan, co-founder of MCR Labs, about his journey into the cannabis industry and his efforts to promote transparency and integrity in laboratory practices. Yasha discusses the origins of MCR Labs, which began in Massachusetts to meet the needs of the soon-to-be legal medical cannabis market. He explains the challenges faced, including result manipulation by labs and the impact on public health. Yasha's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) project aimed to gather testing data from 37 states, revealed significant discrepancies in potency and mold results. Despite some states' reluctance to share data, Yasha has made much of this data public, leading to collaborative research and publications on various aspects of cannabis testing.
