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

Thinking of starting a Medical Marihuana Grow to make sure that you can give marijuana to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver who intends to take your product commercial on a larger scale? 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 might be a wonderful possibility with many brand-new owners seeing significant degrees of earnings and 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 result in your venture being, probably, prohibited and also result in court action that will certainly paralyze your service before it starts.

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

Who Can Apply?

The initial concern to ask yourself is whether or not you are eligible to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. The good news is that anybody, an individual or a full company can apply for a license. Applications started in 2017, and there is presently no deadline to complete the necessary forms. Certainly, there are certain people, that, due to the fact that they can not fulfill the minimal economic requirements, or due to the fact that they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their background, are precluded from applying. Nevertheless, presuming you do not have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and you, or your team of investors, meet the minimum financial needs, there are two main steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The initial step will be completed whether you have a final location for your structure or not. However, if you have already picked a location before sending your State application, something that we extremely suggest, you can complete both steps at the same time.

Pre-Qualification

Pre-qualification is the first step, and it begins with an extensive background check. There are 2 sections-- 401 and 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 divulge and whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This consists of people such as the spouse of the individual and also all corporate officers. This is just one of the reasons that it is worth talking to an MMMA attorney as it can be fairly difficult 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 cannabis business, but the State will also explore the histories of every one of those individual's spouses too. Should any individual have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or otherwise be of "good moral character," the State can reject 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 important to learn about the histories 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 plan for your application, as well as to make sure that any type of prospective concerns with your application are understood, disclosed or gotten ready for before the application is submitted. Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason that a lawyer will commonly be a crucial and necessary hire.

Take into consideration The Cost

Before your information can be reviewed 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 reject to move on with your application until this has been paid in full. Along with being costly, this fee is non-refundable so you want to see to it that there are no problems with your application that can cause it being rejected. An MMFLA lawyer can make certain that this holds true as well as help you navigate any kind of difficult problems. Even more, before you can get State authorization for operation, you will certainly also have to obtain a municipal or city approval. Each city or township will also need you to finish an application as well as you will need to pay an application fee there also. The application cost can vary depending on what the city wishes to charge, however, they can not charge more than $5,000.00. Many cities and also townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application costs alone are most likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That does not consist of the costs of ancillary services, such as accountants, engineers, marketing professionals and also various other services essential for your application to be full.

As soon as you have gathered and paid the application fees, all candidates and also supplemental candidates will certainly have their finger prints taken. You may assume that if you already have actually had your fingerprints taken by local law enforcement this action can be missed. Nevertheless, BMMR will certainly decline finger prints unless they are asked for and collected by them with the licensing procedure. You will need to go to an accepted place where your finger prints can be collected electronically and submitted for review by the State.

Facility License

This is the 2nd step and remember, if you have already selected a location 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. Nonetheless, that plan should include particular things. You must have all 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 permits MMFLA companies to operate. The MMFLA has strict regulations for people and also services intending to grow in a municipality. If you intend to grow in a town, 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 that have opted in to MMFLA), and also it has to have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the regulations as well as guidelines for those facilities to operate within the city or township. The complete standards can be located in 205, however if you do have any kind of questions you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, additionally, get your legal representative to do this for you. As the application advances, BMMR will certainly speak to candidates, giving information on any type of various other demands, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Authorized

Ultimately, 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 anticipate precisely what it will be. Nevertheless, beginning in 2019, regardless of which license you acquire, expect the assessment to be imposed and for that assessment to be significant.

Verdict.

We hope this helps you decide whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Remember, with a lawyer at hand, this process can be much easier, as well as you will get expert guidance on just how to proceed properly to make certain that your application is accepted. Even after you get approval, legal guidance is advised to guarantee you stay on top of modifications to the law as well as regulations, and so that you can remain in compliance and keep your service open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we focus on aiding clients get MMFLA licenses and ensuring continuing compliance.

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