Why the Next Medical Marijuana Licensing Board Meeting is Super Important

The next Michigan Medical Marihuana (Marijuana) Facility Licensing Act board meeting will tell us a lot in regards to timelines for the upcoming industry.

The Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation (BMMR) began accepting applications for licenses under the Michigan Medical Marihuana Facility Licensing Act (MMFLA) in December of 2017.  Hundreds of applications have been submitted to the BMMR but so far there have been only two applications submitted to the state board for approval.

Each license after submitted must be approved by the state board. For the last meeting, there were originally 5 applications on the agenda but three were removed the day before the meeting.  The two submissions that remained on the agenda were prequalification applications which are the first of a two-part application process.   Each of the prequalification applications was temporarily rejected and may be brought up for approval at the next board meeting.  The board meets this week April 19th and the agenda should be released early this week (click here to see agendas and meeting minutes).  Many applicants anxiously await the upcoming agenda to see how many applications will be submitted for approval.

Based on the last board meeting where license approvals were brought up for the first time and the fact that only 5 were originally planned for submission to the board, it would take over 5 years for the board to get through the applications they have currently received.

With new municipalities opting in every week and new opportunities around every corner, there should be a constant stream of applications to add to the stack of applications already piling up.  The State has already added additional meetings to the previously scheduled meeting schedule.  This will help the apparent backlog but won’t be enough unless more than 5 applications are submitted to the board at each meeting.  Many patients around the state of Michigan rely on their medical use of marijuana to help them treat a variety of serious medical conditions and are counting on the MMFLA and the BMMR to put a functioning system in place so that they will have safe access to medicine.

Currently, the BMMR and the board have until June 15th to approve the facilities that are currently operating under local approval demonstrated by attestation E.  If those facilities are not granted approval and the rules don’t change, all currently operating facilities will be forced to shut down on June 15th.  If this occurs, patients will not have access to provisioning centers and the medicine that they provide.  It is the suggestion of the Michigan Cannabis Lawyers that the BMMR either adds hundreds of applications for submission to each meeting or extends the deadlines contained in the emergency rules.  It is vital that patients in Michigan have access to the medical marijuana they need.

 

Josh Covert

michigan cannabis lawyer micannabislawyer.com

The Michigan Cannabis Defender

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