Missouri effort to legalize recreational cannabis grows

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Missouri activist groups hope initiative petitions for recreational or adult cannabis use make it onto a 2022 ballot.

“The idea here is to give consumers access to good products at good prices to prevent them from engaging in illegal activities,” said Eric McSwain, spokesman for Fair Access Missouri. “We know that consumers are already participating in adult use, it’s just not a legal, regulated market.”

Fair Access Missouri has filed several petitions with the Secretary of State and has several hurdles to overcome before citizens can vote on the issue. If any of the petitions got that far, they would allow people over the age of 21 to use cannabis.

Activists like McSWain said this would also open the market up to more economic gain.

And what sets these efforts apart from others is that they don’t include license caps, which is very different from the state’s medical plan. These efforts limited the licenses to 348 and excluded more than 1,000 hopeful business owners.

“The average person, even the everyday user who is not a cannabis user, will enjoy benefits because it increases tax revenue,” said McSwain. “Maybe we can do something on our streets.”

Now business owners whose applications have been denied in the medical process are wondering if this will be their ticket.

“I think it will allow people to get involved,” said Mike Jones. “For example, the property you see behind me was meant to be a pharmacy.”

Jones’s applications for a drugstore and a cultivation facility on 39th Street and Woodland Avenue were denied despite owning two cannabis facilities in Oklahoma.

He said prices in Missouri are outrageously high compared to Oklahoma, a state that is booming with pharmacies and an open market.

Jones said legal recreational cannabis could mean pharmacies on every corner and concerns about the quality of the product.

“I think free time will come whether I like it or not,” said Jones. “I want it to stay medical, but I want access to patients who need it at a reasonable price. That shouldn’t be asking too much.”

From here, the petitions require the attorney general’s approval. You would then go to a public comment deadline. Finances and language would need to be approved, then Fair Access could start collecting 171,000 signatures to get them on the ballot.

NORML, the group that worked to legalize medical cannabis in 2018, is also working on an initiative petition for adult cannabis. A spokesman said they will be filing it soon. The group obtained signatures to put the issue on the May 2020 ballot, but COVID-19 got in the way.

A bill in the Missouri Legislature would have legalized recreational cannabis, but all action against the bill ended in May.