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

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Considering beginning a Medical Marihuana Grow to make sure that you can supply cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that wishes to take your product commercial on a bigger scale? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so lawfully, as long as you can successfully acquire a license from the State to do so. This might be a great chance with several brand-new owners seeing incredible degrees of profit as well as success in the market. Nonetheless, if you make this decision, you do need to ensure that you get a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will cause your venture being, probably, illegal and result in court action that will maim your organisation before it begins.

Sadly, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complex and pricey process. Ask a medical marijuana attorney, and they will inform you that you need to see to it that you are prepared. Let’s look at the actions you will need to take, the team you need to develop as well as the position that you could find yourself in.

Who Can Apply?

The very first inquiry to ask yourself is whether or not you are qualified to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. Fortunately is that anybody, an individual or a full organisation can apply for a license. Applications started in 2017, and also there is currently no due date to finish the needed forms. Obviously, there are particular people, who, since they can not fulfill the minimum economic demands, or due to the fact that they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their background, are prevented from applying. Nevertheless, assuming you don’t have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and you, or your team of financiers, meet the minimum financial requirements, there are two main actions to the MMFLA licensing application process. The primary step will certainly be completed whether you have a final location for your building or not. Nonetheless, if you have already chosen a location prior to sending your State application, something that we extremely recommend, you can finish both steps at the same time.

Pre-Qualification

Pre-qualification is the primary step, and it begins 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 establishing who you need to legally divulge as well as whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This consists of individuals such as the spouse of the individual and also all corporate officers. This is among the reasons it is worth speaking with an Mmma attorney as it can be quite complicated to get all the details correct. The State will want to do a deep dive into the backgrounds of not only all of the “interested parties,” or members/owners of your marijuana organisation, but the State will also explore the backgrounds of all of those individual’s spouses also. Should any person have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or not be of “good moral character,” the State can refute the entire application. In other words, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws away the whole application. Consequently, it is important to understand about the backgrounds of the individuals you have in your investment group, prior to applying for your Medical Marihuana Facilities License. There are a lot of things that a knowledgeable lawyer can do to help you prepare for your application, and to make certain that any type of potential concerns with your application are recognized, divulged or planned for before the application is submitted. Nevertheless, this isn’t the only reason why a lawyer will typically be a crucial and required hire.

Take into consideration The Price

Before your details can be reviewed by an analyst 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 refuse to progress with your application until this has been paid in full. In addition to being expensive, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make certain that there are no issues with your application that could lead to it being denied. An MMFLA attorney can ensure that this is the case and help you navigate any complicated concerns. Further, before you can get State approval for operation, you will certainly also need to obtain a municipal or city authorization. Each city or township will certainly also require you to complete an application and you will have to pay an application fee there also. The application expense can vary depending on what the city wants to charge, nevertheless, they can not charge greater than $5,000.00. Most cities as well as townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application charges alone are most likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That doesn’t include the costs of ancillary services, such as accounting professionals, architects, marketers and also other solutions required for your application to be complete.

Once you have gathered and also paid the application fees, all candidates as well as supplemental candidates will certainly have their fingerprints taken. You may think that if you currently have actually had your finger prints taken by local law enforcement this step can be skipped. Nevertheless, BMMR will decline fingerprints unless they are asked for as well as collected by them via the licensing process. You will need to go to an accepted place where your finger prints can be collected electronically and also submitted for evaluation by the State.

Facility License

This is the 2nd step and remember, if you have already picked a place to grow cannabis, you can complete this step with the first. You have to be prepared to satisfy all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will certainly need to have a business plan. Nevertheless, that plan has to include particular things. You must have every one of the components required by the State: facility plan, security plan, marketing plan, staffing plan, technology plan, waste disposal plan (if applicable), and also a record keeping plan. There are specific minimum requirements set forth in the Administrative Rules that regulate MMFLA facilities, with which you must show your business is in compliance.

Your facility has to be located in a city or township that permits MMFLA organisations to operate. The MMFLA has strict guidelines for individuals and companies preparing to grow in a municipality. If you want to grow in a district, it needs to have an ordinance that authorizes marihuana facility operations. Colloquially, the municipality must 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 guidelines for those centers to run within the city or township. The complete guidelines can be found in 205, yet if you do have any type of questions you need to call your municipal authority. Or, alternatively, get your lawyer to do this for you. As the application progresses, BMMR will get in touch with applicants, giving information on any type of other requirements, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Authorized

Finally, you may get approval for your license. After you are notified of this, you will 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 every year, so it is impossible to predict exactly what it will be. However, beginning in 2019, despite which license you obtain, anticipate the assessment to be imposed and also for that assessment to be substantial.

Verdict.

We hope this helps you decide whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Remember, with a legal representative by your side, this process can be much easier, and you will get experienced suggestions on how to proceed correctly to guarantee that your application is approved. Even after you obtain authorization, legal advice is recommended to assure you stay on top of changes to the law and guidelines, and so that you can continue to be in compliance and also keep your business open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we focus on assisting clients acquire MMFLA licenses and also making sure continuing compliance.

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

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