Am I Ready To Apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities Grow License?

Thinking of starting a Medical Marihuana Grow to ensure that you can provide marijuana to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that wishes to take your item commercial on a bigger range? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so legally, as long as you can successfully acquire a license from the State to do so. This could be a superb opportunity with several new owners seeing remarkable degrees of revenue and success in the market. Nevertheless, if you make this decision, you do need to make certain that you get a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will result in your venture being, probably, unlawful and also bring about court activity that will cripple your company before it starts.

Regrettably, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complex and also expensive process. Ask a medical marijuana attorney, and they will certainly inform you that you need to make sure that you are prepared. Let's look at the steps you will have to take, the team you need to build and the position that you may find yourself in.

Who Can Apply?

The very first concern to ask yourself is whether or not you are qualified to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. The good news is that anyone, an individual or a full organisation can apply for a license. Applications started in 2017, and also there is currently no deadline to complete the needed forms. Certainly, there are particular people, who, due to the fact that they can not fulfill the minimum monetary needs, or since they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their background, are prevented from applying. Nonetheless, thinking you do not have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and you, or your team of investors, fulfill the minimum economic requirements, there are 2 main steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The very first step will certainly be finished whether you have a final location for your building or not. Nevertheless, if you have actually already picked an area prior to submitting your State application, something that we extremely advise, you can complete both actions at the very same time.

Pre-Qualification

Pre-qualification is the first step, and it starts with an extensive background check. There are 2 sections-- 401 as well as 404 of the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (M.C.L. 333.27401 et seq.) to refer to when determining who you need to legally reveal and whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This consists of individuals such as the spouse of the individual and all corporate officers. This is just one of the reasons it is worth talking to an MMMA attorney as it can be quite difficult to get all the information correct. The State will certainly wish to do a deep dive into the backgrounds of not only all of the "interested parties," or members/owners of your marijuana service, but the State will additionally look into the histories of all of those person's spouses too. Should anybody have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or not be of "good moral character," the State can refute the whole application. To put it simply, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws away the whole application. Consequently, it is essential to learn about the histories of the individuals you have in your investment group, before applying for your Medical Marihuana Facilities License. There are a lot of things that a knowledgeable lawyer can do to assist you get ready for your application, and to guarantee that any type of potential concerns with your application are known, revealed or planned for before the application is submitted. Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason a lawyer will typically be an important and required hire.

Take into consideration The Cost

Before your details can be assessed by an expert from the Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation (bmmr), you need to pay a $6000 charge for your application. BMMR will certainly decline to move forward with your application until this has been paid completely. As well as being costly, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make sure that there are no concerns with your application that could result in it being declined. An MMFLA attorney can make certain that this is the case as well as help you navigate any complicated concerns. Even more, before you can get State authorization for operation, you will certainly also have to get a municipal or city approval. Each city or township will certainly also require you to complete an application as well as you will need to pay an application fee there also. The application price can range depending on what the city wishes to charge, nonetheless, they can not charge more than $5,000.00. The majority of cities as well as townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application fees alone are most likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That does not include the costs of ancillary services, such as accounting professionals, designers, marketing professionals and other services necessary for your application to be complete.

As soon as you have gathered and also paid the application fees, all candidates and supplemental applicants will certainly have their fingerprints taken. You may assume that if you currently have had your fingerprints taken by local law enforcement this step can be missed. Nevertheless, BMMR will certainly decline fingerprints unless they are asked for and collected by them with the licensing process. You will have to go to an approved location where your fingerprints can be collected electronically and sent for review by the State.

Facility License

This is the second step and bear in mind, if you have already picked an area to grow cannabis, you can complete this step with the first. You must be prepared to fulfill all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will need to have a business plan. However, that plan needs to include certain things. You must have every one of the parts needed by the State: facility plan, security plan, marketing plan, staffing plan, technology plan, waste disposal plan (if applicable), and a record keeping plan. There are specific minimum requirements stated in the Administrative Rules that regulate MMFLA facilities, with which you must show your business is in compliance.

Your facility should be located in a city or township that allows MMFLA services to run. The MMFLA has strict guidelines for individuals and also businesses preparing to grow in a municipality. If you intend to grow in a municipality, it must have an ordinance that authorizes marihuana facility operations. Colloquially, the municipality should have "opted-in" to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities who have actually opted in to MMFLA), and also it has to have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the rules and standards for those facilities to run within the city or township. The complete guidelines can be found in 205, but if you do have any type of questions you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, additionally, get your attorney to do this for you. As the application progresses, BMMR will speak to applicants, offering details on any kind of various other requirements, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Accepted

Ultimately, you might acquire authorization for your license. After you are notified of this, you will certainly need to pay for a regulatory assessment. Currently, the regulatory assessments for 2018 are as follows:

Safety Compliance Facility and Secured Transporters-- $0.00.

Class A Grow License-- $10,000.

Class B Grow License-- $48,000.00.

Class C Grow License-- $48,000.00.

Processor and Provisioning Center-- $48,000.00.

Likely, the State will establish an across the board equivalent regulatory assessment for all licenses in 2019. Regulatory assessments are subject to change annually, so it is difficult to predict specifically what it will be. Nevertheless, starting in 2019, regardless of which license you acquire, anticipate the assessment to be imposed as well as for that assessment to be substantial.

Verdict.

We hope this helps you make a decision whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Keep in mind, with an attorney by your side, this process can be much easier, as well as you will certainly obtain expert advice on how to proceed appropriately to make certain that your application is accepted. Even after you obtain authorization, legal guidance is advised to guarantee you stay on top of adjustments to the legislation and policies, and so that you can continue to be in compliance and keep your business open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we focus on helping clients obtain MMFLA licenses and also guaranteeing continuing compliance.

Should you choose to retain counsel to aid you on your licensing journey, give us a call.