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

Thinking of beginning a Medical Marihuana Grow so that you can offer cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that wants to take your product commercial on a larger range? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so lawfully, so long as you can successfully obtain a license from the State to do so. This might be a fantastic chance with lots of new owners seeing remarkable levels of earnings and also success in the market. Nevertheless, 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 endeavor being, probably, illegal as well as bring about court action that will cripple your service before it begins.

Unfortunately, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complex and costly process. Ask a medical marijuana lawyer, and they will tell you that you need to see to it that you are prepared. Let's check out the steps you will certainly have to take, the team you need to construct as well as the position that you may find yourself in.

Who Can Apply?

The very first question to ask yourself is whether or not you are eligible to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. Fortunately is that any individual, an individual or a full business can apply for a license. Applications started in 2017, and also there is presently no target date to complete the required forms. Naturally, there are particular people, who, because they can not meet the minimum monetary needs, or because they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their history, are averted from applying. Nevertheless, presuming you don't have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and you, or your team of financiers, satisfy the minimum monetary needs, there are two main steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The first step will be finished whether you have a final location for your structure or not. However, if you have actually already selected a location before submitting your State application, something that we extremely suggest, you can finish both steps at the exact same time.

Pre-Qualification

Pre-qualification is the very first step, and it begins with an extensive background check. There are 2 sections-- 401 and also 404 of the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (M.C.L. 333.27401 et seq.) to refer to when identifying who you need to legally disclose as well as whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This includes individuals such as the spouse of the individual and also all corporate officers. This is one of the reasons why it is worth consulting with an MMMA attorney as it can be quite complicated to get all the details correct. The State will certainly want 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 also check into the histories of every one of those individual's spouses too. Should anybody have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or otherwise 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 tosses out the entire application. For that reason, it is necessary to find out about the backgrounds of the persons you have in your investment group, prior to applying for your Medical Marihuana Facilities License. There are a great deal of things that an experienced attorney can do to help you get ready for your application, and also to ensure that any kind of prospective problems with your application are understood, divulged or planned for before the application is sent. Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason an attorney will frequently be an important and necessary hire.

Consider The Cost

Before your information 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 certainly decline to move on with your application until this has been paid in full. As well as being costly, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make certain that there are no issues with your application that might result in it being rejected. An MMFLA attorney can guarantee that this holds true and help you navigate any kind of complicated problems. Additionally, before you can obtain State authorization for operation, you will certainly also have to obtain a municipal or city authorization. Each city or township will certainly likewise require you to complete an application and you will certainly need to pay an application fee there as well. The application expense can vary depending on what the city wants to charge, nevertheless, 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 charges alone are most likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That does not consist of the costs of ancillary services, such as accounting professionals, designers, marketing professionals as well as other services necessary for your application to be complete.

As soon as you have gathered as well as paid the application fees, all applicants and supplemental applicants will certainly have their finger prints taken. You might think that if you already have actually had your fingerprints taken by local police this step can be avoided. Nonetheless, BMMR will decline fingerprints unless they are asked for and also collected by them via the licensing procedure. You will have to go to an approved place where your fingerprints can be collected electronically and also submitted for evaluation by the State.

Facility License

This is the second step and bear in mind, if you have already picked a location to grow marijuana, you can complete this step with the first. You have to be prepared to meet all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will need to have a business plan. However, that plan has to include particular 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), as well as 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 operate. The MMFLA has strict policies for people and also organisations 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 has to have "opted-in" to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities that have actually opted in to MMFLA), as well as it has to have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the rules and standards for those centers to run within the city or township. The complete guidelines can be discovered in 205, but if you do have any type of inquiries you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, alternatively, get your attorney to do this for you. As the application proceeds, BMMR will get in touch with applicants, offering details on any type of various other needs, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Accepted

Lastly, you might gain approval 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 every year, so it is difficult to predict specifically what it will be. However, beginning in 2019, regardless of which license you obtain, expect the assessment to be imposed as well as 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 an attorney on your side, this process can be much much easier, and also you will obtain experienced advice on just how to proceed appropriately to ensure that your application is accepted. Even after you acquire approval, legal guidance is suggested to guarantee you stay on top of modifications to the legislation and policies, and so that you can continue to be in compliance and also keep your company open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we specialize in assisting customers acquire MMFLA licenses and making sure continuing compliance.

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

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