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

Thinking about starting a Medical Marihuana Grow to make sure that you can give cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver who wishes to take your item commercial on a bigger range? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, now you can do so lawfully, so long as you can successfully get a license from the State to do so. This can be a fantastic chance with numerous new owners seeing significant degrees of profit as well as success in the market. However, if you make this decision, you do need to ensure that you obtain a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will cause your endeavor being, probably, illegal and also lead to court action that will certainly maim your company before it starts.

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

Who Can Apply?

The initial inquiry to ask yourself is whether or not you are qualified to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. The good news is that anyone, an individual or a full company can apply for a license. Applications began in 2017, and there is currently no deadline to complete the necessary forms. Naturally, there are particular individuals, that, because they can not meet the minimum financial requirements, or since they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their history, are precluded from applying. However, presuming you don't have a disqualifying criminal conviction, as well as you, or your team of financiers, meet the minimum monetary demands, there are two major actions to the MMFLA licensing application process. The initial step will certainly be finished whether you have a final location for your building or not. Nonetheless, if you have actually already selected an area prior to sending your State application, something that we highly recommend, you can finish both steps at the exact same time.

Pre-Qualification

Pre-qualification is the initial step, and it starts with an extensive background check. There are two sections-- 401 and 404 of the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (M.C.L. 333.27401 et seq.) to refer to when determining who you need to legally divulge as well as whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This includes individuals such as the spouse of the individual and all corporate officers. This is among the reasons why it is worth consulting with an MMMA attorney as it can be rather difficult to get all the details correct. The State will wish to do a deep dive into the backgrounds of not only all of the "interested parties," or members/owners of your cannabis service, but the State will certainly also look into the histories of all 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 deny the whole application. In other words, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws out the entire application. As a result, it is important to understand about the backgrounds of the persons you have in your investment group, before applying for your Medical Marihuana Facilities License. There are a great deal of things that a skilled lawyer can do to aid you get ready for your application, and to guarantee that any potential concerns with your application are recognized, divulged or prepared for before the application is sent. Nonetheless, this isn't the only reason why a lawyer will usually be an important and needed hire.

Consider The Cost

Before your details can be evaluated by an expert from the Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation (BMMR), you need to pay a $6000 cost for your application. BMMR will reject to move on with your application until this has been paid completely. In addition to being expensive, this fee is non-refundable so you want to ensure that there are no problems with your application that could cause it being declined. An MMFLA attorney can ensure that this holds true as well as help you navigate any challenging concerns. Even more, before you can acquire State authorization for operation, you will certainly also need to get a municipal or city authorization. Each city or township will also need you to finish an application and also you will certainly have to pay an application fee there as well. The application cost can range depending on what the city wants to charge, nonetheless, they can not charge greater than $5,000.00. The majority of cities as well as townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application costs alone are likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That does not include the costs of ancillary services, such as accountants, architects, marketing professionals as well as other services needed for your application to be full.

As soon as you have collected as well as paid the application fees, all candidates and also supplemental candidates will have their finger prints taken. You could believe that if you currently have actually had your finger prints taken by local law enforcement this step can be missed. Nevertheless, BMMR will certainly not accept finger prints unless they are asked for as well as collected by them through the licensing process. You will certainly have to go to an approved place where your fingerprints can be collected digitally and sent for review by the State.

Facility License

This is the 2nd step and remember, if you have already chosen a location to grow cannabis, you can complete this step with the first. You should be prepared to fulfill all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will need to have a business plan. Nonetheless, that plan needs to include certain things. You must have every one of the parts called for 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 set forth in the Administrative Rules that regulate MMFLA facilities, with which you must show your business is in compliance.

Your facility needs to be located in a city or township that permits MMFLA organisations to run. The MMFLA has strict guidelines 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 needs to have "opted-in" to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities who have actually opted in to MMFLA), as well as it must have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the rules and guidelines for those facilities to operate within the city or township. The complete guidelines can be found in 205, but if you do have any type of concerns you need to call your municipal authority. Or, alternatively, get your lawyer to do this for you. As the application advances, BMMR will certainly contact applicants, giving info on any type of other requirements, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Accepted

Finally, you may get authorization 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 yearly, so it is difficult to anticipate precisely what it will be. Nevertheless, starting in 2019, despite which license you acquire, expect the assessment to be imposed as well as for that assessment to be substantial.

Verdict.

We hope this helps you make a decision whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Remember, with an attorney at hand, this process can be far easier, and also you will gain skilled suggestions on how to proceed appropriately to make sure that your application is approved. Even after you get authorization, legal advice is suggested to assure you stay on top of adjustments to the law and also regulations, and so that you can remain in compliance and keep your service open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we focus on aiding clients obtain MMFLA licenses and making certain continuing compliance.

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