With Recreational Weed legal, officials expect Medical Marijuana licenses to dwindle
Recreational marijuana is legal in the state of Missouri, as of Thursday, Dec. 8. And while the implementation of the voter-approved change is ongoing, state officials say it's likely to lead to a noticeable decline in medical marijuana licensing.
As it charts next steps, the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation is looking at the experiences of other states that legalized both medical and recreational marijuana. Division Director of Public Outreach Lyndall Fraker said the main anticipation is fewer medical marijuana patients.
As of mid-December, about 207,000 medical marijuana patients are registered in Missouri, but Fraker said the division is "pretty confident" that this number will go down in the coming years.
"Even though (customers) still may be purchasing (marijuana) for an actual medical situation, they still may purchase it under the adult-use, just so they don't have to be in the registry or so they don't have to get a certification or go to the doctor every three years," Fraker said.
Despite this, Fraker said he expects the medical marijuana industry to remain "viable" and expects the sales of marijuana, both medical and recreational, to triple.
One reason Fraker believes the medical marijuana industry will remain productive in generating venue is because of the sales tax difference. Under Amendment 3, a 4% sales tax is imposed on medical marijuana and a 6% sales tax is imposed on recreational marijuana. In addition, local entities may add up to an additional 3% sales tax on recreational marijuana products, while the medical marijuana sales tax is fixed. This means there is potential for a 5 percentage point difference in the tax rate.
Amendment 3 makes other changes to medical marijuana — almost the entire first half of the amendment replaces the medical marijuana legislation voters approved passed four years ago.
Under the new rules, medical marijuana patients need only renew their medical marijuana cards every three years, rather than annually, Fraker said. Physicians will only have to renew their certifications every three years, too.
Recreational, medical marijuana will be available at the same dispensaries
Although the regulations for medical and recreational marijuana have important differences, the products themselves are the same and will be available at the same dispensaries. The only difference, Fraker said, is that a medicinal user must show a medical marijuana card while a recreational user must show a valid photo ID.
Dispensaries may host separate registers for the two products or package them differently, but this is up to each individual dispensary.
Some of the other changes Amendment 3 made include:
- Removes state prohibitions on purchasing, possessing, consuming, using, delivering, manufacturing and selling marijuana for personal use for adults over 21;
- Requires a registration card for personal cultivation with prescribed limits;
- Allows persons with certain non-violent, marijuana-related offenses to petition for release from incarceration or parole and probation and have records cleared;
- Establishes a lottery selection process to award licenses and certificates;
- Issues equally distributed licenses to each congressional district;
- Imposes a 6% tax on the retail price of marijuana to benefit various programs.
