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

Thinking about beginning a Medical Marihuana Grow to ensure that you can provide cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that wants to take your item commercial on a larger scale? 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 can be an amazing possibility with many new owners seeing remarkable degrees of revenue and success in the market. However, if you make this choice, you do need to make sure that you obtain a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly cause your venture being, more than likely, unlawful and also bring about court action that will cripple your organisation before it begins.

However, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complex and costly process. Ask a medical marijuana lawyer, as well as they will certainly tell you that you need to see to it that you are prepared. Let's take a look at the actions you will have to take, the team you need to build as well as the position that you could find yourself in.

Who Can Apply?

The very first concern to ask yourself is whether or not you are eligible to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. The bright side is that any person, an individual or a full company can apply for a license. Applications began in 2017, as well as there is currently no deadline to complete the needed forms. Obviously, there are specific people, that, because they can not satisfy the minimum financial demands, or since they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their background, are prevented from applying. However, thinking you don't have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and also you, or your team of capitalists, fulfill the minimum economic needs, there are two main steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The initial step will be finished whether you have a final location for your building or not. Nonetheless, if you have actually already picked a place before submitting your State application, something that we extremely recommend, you can complete both actions at the 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 consists of people such as the spouse of the individual and all corporate officers. This is among the reasons why it is worth talking to an MMMA lawyer as it can be fairly tricky 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 business, but the State will certainly also explore the backgrounds of every one of those person's spouses also. Should anybody have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or not be of "good moral character," the State can refute the whole application. Simply put, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws out the whole application. As a result, it is necessary to find out 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 a skilled lawyer can do to help you get ready for your application, as well as to ensure that any potential issues with your application are recognized, divulged or gotten ready for before the application is submitted. However, this isn't the only reason why an attorney will typically be a crucial and needed hire.

Take into consideration The Expense

Before your details can be examined 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 decline to progress with your application until this has been paid completely. In addition to being expensive, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make sure that there are no problems with your application that might cause it being declined. An MMFLA lawyer can ensure that this is the case as well as help you navigate any kind of complicated concerns. Further, before you can obtain State authorization for operation, you will also need to obtain a municipal or city approval. Each city or township will certainly additionally require you to complete an application as well as you will have to pay an application fee there as well. The application expense can vary depending on what the city wishes to charge, however, they can not charge more than $5,000.00. The majority of cities and also townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application fees 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, architects, marketing professionals and other solutions needed for your application to be full.

When you have gathered as well as paid the application fees, all candidates as well as supplemental candidates will certainly have their fingerprints taken. You could assume that if you already have actually had your finger prints taken by local police this action can be avoided. Nevertheless, BMMR will certainly decline fingerprints unless they are asked for as well as collected by them with the licensing procedure. You will have to go to an authorized location where your finger prints can be collected electronically as well as submitted for review by the State.

Facility License

This is the second step and remember, if you have already picked an area 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. Nonetheless, that plan must 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), and also 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 has to be located in a city or township that allows MMFLA organisations to run. The MMFLA has strict rules for people and businesses preparing 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 must have "opted-in" to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities that have opted in to MMFLA), and also it should have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the rules and also standards for those facilities to run within the city or township. The complete standards can be discovered in 205, yet if you do have any type of questions you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, conversely, get your attorney to do this for you. As the application progresses, BMMR will get in touch with candidates, supplying details on any type of other demands, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Authorized

Finally, you may acquire 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 annually, so it is difficult to anticipate exactly what it will be. Nonetheless, beginning in 2019, despite which license you acquire, expect the assessment to be imposed and also for that assessment to be substantial.

Final thought.

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 far easier, and you will acquire expert advice on just how to proceed properly to make certain that your application is accepted. Even after you acquire approval, legal guidance is recommended to assure you stay on top of modifications to the legislation and also guidelines, and so that you can continue to be in compliance and keep your company open.

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

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