Missouri received nearly 900 applications for its final round of marijuana microbusiness licenses, with the Missouri Lottery scheduled to draw applicants on Sept. 9 for 77 available licenses.
But unlike the entrepreneurs selected in the program's first two rounds, this year's applicants will enter a system reshaped by two years of growing pains and dozens of license revocations.
Jimi Poe, owner of 816 Dispensary in Platte City, was among the first microbusiness licensees selected in 2023. Two years later, he opened Missouri's first operating microbusiness dispensary.
"It was definitely a long journey," Poe said during the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation's latest podcast episode. "It was a journey that round three people are not going to have to go."
The microbusiness program was established through the 2022 constitutional amendment voters approved to legalize recreational marijuana. It was "designed to expand opportunities for marginalized or under-represented individuals to participate in the state's regulated marijuana industry," according to the state's website.
As part of the DCR Out Loud episode, Poe spoke with Lesley Turek, the division's chief equity officer, about the evolution of the program since its inception in 2023.
New rules take aim at 'predatory' contracts in Missouri cannabis microbusiness program
This is the third and final lottery for microbusinesses, where the state will issue at least 29 wholesale and at least 34 dispensary licenses to meet the constitutional requirement of 144 total micro licenses.
Poe was one of the "pioneers" of the microbusiness industry, Turek said, and as of Aug. 18, there are 21 operational microbusiness licenses —five dispensaries and 16 wholesale.
These companies heavily relied on each other to learn and grow their businesses, Poe said, so it's important for new owners to build relationships right away.
"That's one of the great benefits of the microbusiness program," Turek said, "is that it really is a community."
Turek, who oversees the microbusiness program, also stressed that the winners should also develop a relationship with their compliance officers so they understand the new rules put in place in May. They're rules cannabis regulators proposed in 2024 after they revoked numerous licenses due to unconstitutional ownership deals.
"I think it's really important too for licensees," she said, "both current and future applicants, to understand — any sort of arrangement or agreements that you are trying to get into, include DCR with those so that we can make sure that you're remaining compliant."
The new rules governing the microbusiness program provide a deeper explanation of what it means to "majority own and operate" a license, which was a requirement in the 2022 constitutional amendment.
They allow regulators to complete an extensive review of potential ownership arrangements before the licenses are issued, rather than afterwards. And they mandate that regulators communicate directly with majority owners, not consultants, and that applicants take a course on compliance before applying and after receiving the license.
When Poe was 20, he said he got slapped with a nonviolent marijuana charge.
"I had a so-called friend get in trouble," Poe told Turek, "and he wanted to get out of that trouble, so he hooked me up with an undercover cop and told me it was his uncle."
He ended up selling 12 pounds to the undercover cop and did 14 months in prison.
"I was dating my wife at the time, and I remember telling her that, 'Hey, do this bit with me, and I promise I'll never sell marijuana again,'" Poe said. "And I never did until here we are, selling marijuana together in the dispensary under a state license."
Aug. 4 was the 20th anniversary of the day he got busted.
Now his charge is an important part of his business' story, and it also made him eligible to apply for a microbusiness.
"I remember when I first won the license, I was like, 'I'm gonna be the first to open,'" he said. "That was my goal from the time I won the license, and I also wanted to make my mark within the industry. So I felt like I achieved those goals."
While it took two years instead of the six months he anticipated to open, Poe stressed that it won't be as hard for these new winners.
"There's a lot more people that are coming online," he said, "and there's a lot more stuff out there than when I first started. There were a lot of gray areas, and people were still trying to figure it out."
When he opened his doors, "people thought I was crazy," he said.
He only had nine different strands of what the industry calls "flower," or dry weed in containers.
Now he has 32 different strains of flower, disposable distillate carts, multiple different dabs and 12 different pre-rolled joints. His menu started as one page and now it's eight pages long, so "things have grown tremendously," in a year, he said.
"We're still lacking on the manufacturer side," Poe said of the microbusiness community. "The manufacturing and equipment and the know-how, people are still trying to figure that out."
Turek said before the Missouri Lottery draws the winners, cannabis regulators will vet the applications for basic things, like making sure no one has applied twice and application fees have been paid.
"It does take a little bit of time," she said, "because if, for example, an application fee doesn't come through, we give that person a chance to make that payment so that they can go to the lottery."
Then after the draw, Turek said they'll be in "full processing mode."
They will be conducting a full review of the top-drawn applications, making sure that all the business arrangements are compliant with state law and background checks show no disqualifying felonies.
"We'll start by making a phone call to reach out to the owners and say, 'Hey, it's us, DCR. Here's your specialist with this team,'" Turek said. "Give you specific names to contact and tell you what's going to happen in the process."
If that application doesn't meet state requirements, then the next top-drawn applicant will be processed. This is part of the new rules to prevent numerous license revocations.
Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department for Health and Senior Services that oversees the cannabis division, said the division plans to award microbusiness licenses from Round 3 before the end of 2026.
Currently, there are 46 microbusiness licenses from the Round 1 and 2 that are active but not yet approved to operate.
Poe said that's partly because owners were nervous to open and unsure if the microbusiness program was going to thrive.
"I've been operational for over a year," he said, "and I've proven that we're going to make it."