Missouri Marijuana Rules Challenged In Court
“It is wrong, and it is not what Missourians intended”
The day after Christmas in 2019, state health authorities turned down every Springfield-area company that applied for a medical marijuana growing license, along with many other companies elsewhere in southern Missouri.
Medical marijuana regulators at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services awarded just 60 of the potentially lucrative licenses, drawing from more than 550 applicants hoping to grow medical cannabis for profit.
The Callicoat family out of Sarcoxie didn’t take the denial lying down. A retired cardiologist, Paul Callicoat, had teamed up with his wife and son to create a plan to turn the old Sarcoxie Nursery, which grew peonies and irises, into a medical marijuana operation: Sarcoxie Nursery Cultivation Center, LLC.
Four days after getting a red light from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Sarcoxie Nursery filed a lawsuit.
The Callicoat family argued that Missouri’s selective medical marijuana licensing process violated Missourians’ right to farm. They also objected to “blind scoring” protocols that included bonuses awarded to applicants located in economically distressed ZIP Codes.
“We are very concerned with integrity of the scoring,” Callicoat told the News-Leader in January. They also argued that “large corporations” had been unfairly awarded “the lion’s share” of cultivation licenses.
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