The program is “designed to expand opportunities for marginalized or under-represented individuals to participate in the state’s regulated marijuana industry.”
By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent
Missouri received nearly 900 applications for its final round of marijuana microbusiness licenses, with the Missouri Lottery scheduled to draw applicants on September 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
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