{"id":82033,"date":"2025-07-02T08:32:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/07\/02\/missouri-officials-award-contract-for-marijuana-market-study-that-will-help-determine-whether-to-issue-new-licenses\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T19:47:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T03:47:28","slug":"missouri-officials-award-contract-for-marijuana-market-study-that-will-help-determine-whether-to-issue-new-licenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/07\/02\/missouri-officials-award-contract-for-marijuana-market-study-that-will-help-determine-whether-to-issue-new-licenses\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Officials Award Contract For Marijuana Market Study That Will Help Determine Whether To Issue New Licenses"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it relates to cannabis markets, Missouri is pretty famously the model to follow. So I\u2019m very interested in doing a super deep dive.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent<\/strong><\/p>\n

New York-based Cannabis Public Policy Consulting LLC was awarded a contract this month to study Missouri\u2019s marijuana market<\/a> for the next year.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s $238,700 contract to conduct an economic-impact study will help the state determine \u201cwhether or when the state will be required to issue additional cannabis facility licenses and, if so, how many, where, and of what type,\u201d according to a March press release from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.<\/p>\n

Currently, department rules allows only a handful of licenses more than the minimum number required by the constitutional amendments that legalized medical and, subsequently, recreational marijuana for adults.<\/p>\n

As a result, the department has issued nearly 400 licenses for cultivation, manufacturing facilities and dispensaries. The rules, for example, allow 27 dispensary licenses in each of the state\u2019s eight congressional districts, while the Constitution requires a minimum of 24.<\/p>\n

The state will also eventually have 144 microbusiness licenses, which are limited in size and scope and meant to benefit disadvantaged business owners.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Missouri recorded $1.46 billion in total marijuana sales in the state\u2019s second year of adult-use marijuana, outperforming states with a longer history of marijuana legalization<\/a> like Arizona, Colorado and Nevada.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it relates to cannabis markets, Missouri is pretty famously the model to follow,\u201d Mackenzie Slade, the group\u2019s CEO and owner, told The Independent in April. \u201cSo I\u2019m very interested in doing a super deep dive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three companies were vying for the contract this spring. One applicant, Oregon-based Whitney Economics, conducts cannabis studies globally but failed to meet one of the requirements regarding managers, according to the state\u2019s bid evaluation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The other was St. Louis-based Capital Consulting Services, a certified Missouri minority-owned business enterprise that has helped governments with economic feasibility studies for 15 years on a state and federal level. The group submitted a higher bid of $360,000 than Slade\u2019s company and didn\u2019t have as much experience studying cannabis markets.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2019, Cannabis Public Policy Consulting is a \u201c100% woman-owned collective of researchers, data scientists, public health professionals, and policy experts working together toward a unified goal: to bring much-needed data, innovation, and nuance to cannabis research and policymaking,\u201d the contract states.<\/p>\n

Before becoming an independent LLC, the group worked together as a consulting team incubated by Advocates for Human Potential Inc. and have produced similar market reports for about 12 cannabis regulatory agencies over the last six years, the contract<\/a> states. That includes the states of Maine, Maryland, Virginia, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Michigan and Utah.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a dozen government contracts, CPPC has performed the exact same scope of services as outlined in the RFP; supply and demand assessments and predictive modeling,\u201d it states.<\/p>\n

Slade\u2019s company administers a national survey on cannabis use, which essentially measures and quantifies demand behavior for consumers. One of the things that they use it for, she said, at a national level is to try to understand how states are performing based on their policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Missouri continuously outperforms other states, relative to their date of sale,\u201d she told The Independent, \u201c\u2026because they were able to stand up a market so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was in part, she said, because Missouri limited the number of licenses to get operational within just a few months. For the study, Slade proposed to use the state\u2019s track and trace data to identify the efficiencies of the licenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a prime example of where we would uncover some extremely important considerations for policy,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I do believe that the intent of the study is to identify areas of policy that need to be updated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts generally agree that Missouri\u2019s decision to only issue a few more than the minimum licenses allowed under the constitution has been the key to the industry\u2019s boom. However, critics have long argued that the decision created a monopoly that\u2019s kept out opportunities for people who were most impacted by the war on drugs. While the microbusiness license program was included in the 2022 constitutional amendment to address inequities, the limitations on what these businesses can do make it difficult to turn a profit.<\/p>\n

If the department does issue additional licenses, at least half of those licenses must be awarded to owners of cannabis microbusiness facilities that have been operational for at least a year.<\/p>\n

The study will also provide information regarding the overall economic stability of the regulated market, including strengths and risks, with a special emphasis on the market\u2019s impact on economically distressed areas of the state, according to the state\u2019s press release.<\/p>\n

The Constitution requires the department to develop a plan to \u201cpromote and encourage ownership and employment in the marijuana industry by people from political subdivisions and districts that are economically distressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe study will provide information,\u201d the release<\/a> states, \u201crelevant to creating and implementing such a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The Congressional Cannabis Caucus Still Hasn\u2019t Held A Meeting Six Months Into This Session, Co-Chair Says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Missouri Officials Award Contract For Marijuana Market Study That Will Help Determine Whether To Issue New Licenses<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Missouri Officials Award Contract For Marijuana Market Study That Will Help Determine Whether To Issue New Licenses<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs it relates to cannabis markets, Missouri is pretty famously the model to follow. So I\u2019m very interested in doing a super deep dive.\u201d By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent New York-based Cannabis Public Policy Consulting LLC was awarded a contract this month to study Missouri\u2019s marijuana market for the nextContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82034,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82033\/revisions\/82034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}