Would-be medical cannabis patients in Missouri can begin applying for patient cards today after officials pushed up the start date for accepting applications from July 4, the St. Joseph News-Press reports. Patients can sign up at state-approved medical cannabis dispensaries, but they are not yet carrying any products.
The state’s medical cannabis program only allows for low-THC, high-CBD products and dispensaries can begin applying in August to carry the products.
Patients must pay a $25 fee to the state when they apply and dispensaries may also charge a fee.
Eric Miller, a clinical nutritional consultant at St. Joe Health Care and Wellness, said patients must bring all of their medical records to dispensaries when they apply.
“We have a big checklist that we go through. We also make sure they have been treated by a physician and that has also been well documented. And then run down a checklist of our own. Only then will we begin the application process for the card.” – Miller, to the News-Press
Andrew Hicks, owner of 20 After 4, said that regulators have until Jan. 1 to approve or deny dispensaries after they apply, but he doesn’t expect patients to have access to products “until April or March” of next year.
Patients are also allowed to grow up to six flowering plants of their own – along with six in vegetation and six clones – or they can let dispensaries care for those plants for them, Hicks said. The state caps medical cannabis purchases at 4 ounces per month and patients must be evaluated every six months.
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