Missouri passed Revision 2 on November 6, 2018, authorizing medical marijuana and charging the Department of Health and Senior Services with making a regulatory framework for offering patient access. The Missouri medical marijuana program permits patients with qualifying medical conditions to apply for an identification card to buy medical marijuana. As of Feb 2020, the DHSS has issued cards to more than 30,000 patients, 840 caregivers, and approximately 10,000 growers.

 

About Cannabis in Missouri

In 2018, 66% of Missourians voted to validate medical marijuana; though, in August 2020, the state had not executed one medical dispensary for the approximately 60,000 qualified patients waiting to purchase prescriptions for required relief, reports The Joplin Globe. 

In January 2020, the Missouri Division of Health and Senior Services stated, “it is a hard reality that there is no legal way of initially getting marijuana unless that marijuana is somehow discovered in the wild.” The statement goes on to argue that medical marijuana cardholders have the privilege to own marijuana. 

Residents waited until the end of 2020 before medical cannabis hit the shelves for buy-through medical marijuana cardholders. Patients actively have access to numerous dispensaries across the state.

 

What are the Existing Laws in Missouri for Medical Marijuana?

After years of aggressive trials for the use of marijuana in Missouri, the voting public passed a ballot initiative decriminalizing medical marijuana in 2018. This ballot initiative permits the medical use of marijuana while recommended by doctors licensed by the state. It also formed licensing and certification rules for consumers and those seeking to market medical marijuana to the public.

While the sanction of Amendment 2 was a significant phase in the right direction, there are still strict limits on the use of marijuana in Missouri. Moreover, holders of a medical marijuana card might also face prosecution if they stray from the boundaries of the state marijuana rules. Missouri Statutes Section 579.015 states that owning fewer than 10 grams of marijuana without a medical card is a Class A crime.

 

How to Get a Missouri Medical Marijuana Card?

Medical marijuana cards are only accessible to residents with specific qualifying disorders. The list of these conditions is comprehensive. Some qualifying conditions include autism, neuropathy, glaucoma, or a terminal illness.

It is not sufficient to claim a qualifying disorder. An applicant must get a certification from a Missouri doctor confirming the condition and commending the use of medical marijuana to treat it. After gaining this certification, a person must apply to the state and await authorization.

It is worth noting that while previous criminal convictions will not forbid an applicant from gaining a medical marijuana card, committing definite drug offenses might cause the revocation of a current card. To apply for a card, you must register online and fill out the application.

1. Make An APPOINTMENT

Book an appointment to see a medical marijuana physician in MO at the most suitable time. Deliver basic medical history, and book your appointment with a certified medical marijuana physician. Medical records will only be essential for patients with disorders that can only be determined from medical imaging plus testing; otherwise, they are not required.

2. CONSULT WITH A DOCTOR

Consult a physician for 15-10 minutes to assess your sicknesses, and ask any enquiries concerning medical marijuana treatment. Afterwards, the appointment is finished, and if you are sanctioned, the physician will finish an Electronic Authorization over the state web portal. The patient will then be required to register plus submit an online application to the state.

A general medicinal cannabis prescription in Missouri is a dosage of 4 ounces a month. If you require more, inform your doctor who would use the Alternate Doctor Certification Form, which two diverse physicians must finish with a similar medical condition plus the same dosage amount. Furthermore, patients must be capable of proving state citizenship to be entitled to a medical marijuana card.

3. GET APPROVED

When you are sanctioned, you will register with the state plus apply. It might take 30 days for your claim to be studied. The state would process your application, inform you of your endorsement, and mail your card. When you have your medical card, you could begin buying from dispensaries in Missouri. Application charges are due at the time of application. The state would send you an approval email after submitting your application.

In Missouri, patients would need to recertify their license yearly by seeing a certified doctor again. 

 

Missouri qualifying condition

The DHSS website has an updated list of qualifying disorders. Here are the most common that are entitled to medical cannabis use:

• Cancer.
• Glaucoma.
• Epilepsy.
• Intractable migraines unresponsive to other treatments.
• A chronic medical condition that causes severe, insistent pain or insistent muscle spasms, including but not limited to those related to multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, seizures, and Tourette’s syndrome.
• Debilitating psychiatric illnesses, including, but not limited to, post-traumatic stress order if detected by a state-licensed psychoanalyst.
• Human immunodeficiency virus otherwise acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS).
• A terminal illness.

 

How Much Does It Cost to Get a Medical Marijuana Card?

A $25 application fee is payable to the state while you submit your application for a Missouri medical marijuana card. The cost of the doctor’s appointment and the application fee is separate. This payment is the same for a patient or caregiver application.

Renewals must be submitted 30 days before the patient’s preceding card expires. The state should send you numerous notices periodically in the lead-up to your license expiration; thus, you are reminded to complete the essential processes.

It costs $100 for a Patient Cultivation Card which is essential if you want to grow cannabis in Missouri. You could select this as an additional option during the application procedure.

Since cannabis is federally illegal, insurance companies will not cover any costs incurred from applying for a medical marijuana card.

 

Registration of a Primary Caregiver

To become a caregiver for a Missouri citizen both caregiver plus patient must be capable of providing evidence of citizenship with a legal ID card or driver’s license. The caregiver requires to be added to the patient’s medical cannabis authorization application as the registered primary caregiver to be accredited to buy and own medical marijuana on patient’s behalf. The fee for a caregiver is $25.94. 

A patient might have two registered caregivers who are residents of the state of Missouri and are 21 or older. Caregivers are permitted to help three patients at a time. Only parents or legal guardians might serve as minors’ caregivers.

Either patient or caregiver might comprise an application for cultivation, except if the patient is minor. If they are minor, they could not apply for farming. If patient farming is wanted, it must be included in your early application for a medical marijuana certificate.

 

Cultivation and Possession of Medical Marijuana 

State law binds the buying of marijuana to 4 ounces each 30 days. That is, except you see two doctors, and they fill up the Alternate Physician Authorization Form that requests a similar quantity of marijuana for the similar medical disorder.

For an added103.73 $, cannabis patients plus caregivers might apply for the patient farming ID card. Missouri regulation identifies that up to two persons who have cultivation IDs might develop marijuana in one place. 

The two persons might be two patients, two caregivers, otherwise a patient plus a caregiver. Up to 12 matured, flowering cannabis plants might be farmed in this state. Additionally, there might be up to 12 immature, non-flowering plants plus 12 clones. If one of the persons is a patient along with a caregiver, then the amount of plants increases to an added six mature plants, six non-flowering foliage, and six clones. 

It is significant to note that any farming must take place in an encircled, protected facility that might be a stationary closet, garage, room, greenhouse, or else other similar and completely encircled spaces that merely the patient or caregiver has entered to. 

An outdoor encircled facility must be a stationary place that is surrounded on all sides excluding the base. It could be secured by a wooden slat, chain-link fence, or similar material. 

The plants could not be visible to the unaided eye if seeing at it from an adjoining property. You might also grow your medicine only on one site that is thorough on your application for the certificate with the state. 

If you choose to move your foliage toward a new, surrounded and locked place, you might do so; however, you must modernize your application with the new site in detail instantly to stay in compliance.

 

Missouri public intake laws

Medical marijuana patients are forbidden from consuming their marijuana in public places. Public places comprise many common regions open to the general public, for example, parks, schools, sidewalks, and businesses.

The rule also states that “for the purpose of designating a non-public place inside a public place, the proprietor or entity of any such property may, however, is not required to, provide one or more surrounded, private spaces wherever one qualifying patient might intake medical marijuana.”

Missouri Marijuana DUI laws

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Service does not make any penalty exceptions for driving under the influence of cannabis.

Even if the individual has a medical marijuana license, The patient ID card does not offer a person protection from violating laws relating to operating a motor car while under the influence. 

 

Missouri Marijuana Testing Regulations

In 2019, the Missouri state law awarded ten businesses with certificates as cannabis lab test facilities.

The state has formed a Facility Licensing and Compliance Unit to oversee cannabis testing rules for medical marijuana.

 

Benefits of Missouri medical marijuana card

A Missouri marijuana medical card is just the patient ID card that you will obtain from the Department of Health Services when you have been registered as a marijuana patient in Missouri. By your card, you will have all of the authorized privileges and advantages granted to patients beneath the state’s marijuana law. 

You will use the card to get entry to Missouri dispensaries, wherever you can buy a wide variation of marijuana products, containing lots of flower strain, vape pens plus cartridges, topical, edibles, tinctures, THC-infused beverages plus more.

The card will look like any other ID card you may have. It has your image on it, your address, plus an exclusive patient ID number. ​This ID card will deliver patients lots of benefits: 

1. Good Treatment

Suppose you presently suffer from one otherwise more qualifying disorder. In that case, we strongly recommend that you start your treatment routine under the direction of a doctor with the training, empathy, and trust in the remedial qualities intrinsic in cannabis. In Missouri, all our physicians are not merely approved under Missouri but also took extra medical cannabis courses to confirm that they have acute and recent info associated with therapeutic advantages of medicinal marijuana.

2. Patient Product Confidence

Each of Missouri’s approved dispensaries carries a diversity of products that have been carefully controlled and tested for clarity plus potency. When you buy from a Missouri dispensary, you will be confident of knowing precisely wherever your marijuana products come from as well as that they are potent, safe, and specifically labeled.

3. Dispensary Access

Medical marijuana products must be bought from a Missouri-authorized dispensary or developed by patients with an agriculture certificate. The Missouri Division of Health Service supports use of medicinal marijuana (in its numerous forms) as low-risk and effective treatment technique for any one otherwise more of qualifying disorders.  

With a Missouri marijuana medical card, you will be capable of accessing Missouri dispensaries as well as buying medical marijuana. These state-licensed marijuana dispensaries carry several forms of medical marijuana in variable potency and strengths. You will be capable of purchasing products for example creams, tinctures, oils, dry flower plus plant material, vape pens, pre-rolls, and edibles.

4. Legal Protection ​

Your marijuana card makes it easy for you to reveal to law administration that you are recorded with Missouri’s marijuana regulator and thus allowed to own, transport, and ingest medical marijuana products.

5. Entree to the Other States ​

A Missouri medical marijuana card permits you access to dispensaries situated within the state. Missouri does not reciprocate marijuana cards from other states; however, numerous states accept a marijuana card as legal for medical marijuana buying when Missouri citizens visit. Check with out-of-state dispensaries beforehand of your visit to check.

6. Cultivation

A Missouri medical marijuana card with an added cultivation license permits you to produce six flowerings plants per patient. You should follow all rules registered by the state.

 

Is medical marijuana legal in Missouri?

Medical marijuana is legal in Missouri; though recreational or adult-use marijuana is not. The state voted in support of MMJ back in 2018.

 

Can we home-cultivate medicinal marijuana in Missouri?

Patients are permitted to produce six flowerings (feminine) plants in their home, along with six non-flowerings (male) plants, plus six clones (foliage cut from plant clipping). Patients could apply for farmer cards while they submit patient applications at an advanced date. These cards are distinct from patient identification cards plus a fee of an extra $100.

Caregivers could cultivate cannabis in favour of their patient if they do not have a farmer card. Cannabis foliage should be out of sight plus in a protected room where kids could not access them.

 

Does insurance cover my medicinal marijuana?

No, insurance firms typically do not cover medicinal marijuana or associated expenses. 

 

Does Missouri agree to take medical marijuana cards from other states?

No. To access medicinal cannabis in Missouri, you should be a patient in the Missouri medicinal marijuana program. Out-of-state patients are permitted to own marijuana if they have a medical marijuana identification card otherwise its equivalent from their state.

 

Will my medical info stay private?

Yes, the law forbids the DHSS plus any Missouri-certified dispensary from creating personal ID info publicly available. Doctors and dispensary staff will be capable of verifying a patient’s or caregiver’s registration.

 

Where can I buy medicinal marijuana in Missouri?

Medicinal marijuana will be accessible from dispensaries certified by DHSS. When the DHSS has finished its dispensary certifying procedure, dispensary sites will be accessible through the Gov site. 

 

Are minors permitted to become marijuana patients in Missouri?

Yes, minors might become patients in Missouri, on condition that they have the written approval of their parents or guardians. Children might not obtain a farming identification card.

 

When would we receive a Missouri medicinal marijuana card?

Patients would obtain authorization for their marijuana card inside 30 days’ application plus could download their identification card straight from DHSS website.

 

Could I get my medicinal marijuana card over telemedicine?

If a patient does not require an in-person appointment, a doctor could conduct a test through telemedicine to decide whether the patient is licensed for medicinal marijuana use. Though, doctors should note that the authorization needs a hand written sign. Telemedicine doctors must comply with current telemedicine rules in Missouri.

 

How long is a medicinal marijuana identification card valid?

A patient or else caregiver registering is authorized for a year after issuance.

 

How do Missouri laws protect medicinal marijuana patients?

Medicinal marijuana patients relish legal protection for ownership and intake of medicinal marijuana if they have a legal card.

 

How long does it take to get a medical card?

From start to finish, getting a medical marijuana card in Missouri could take anywhere from two weeks to one month. The state has precisely 30 days to process your application; however, it typically happens faster than that, depending on the number of applications.

 

How often could you go to a dispensary?

There isn’t a precise limit on how many times you can visit Missouri dispensaries. Instead, there is a limitation on how much product you could purchase. Missouri marijuana laws state that cardholders can buy up to four ounces of dried, unprocessed marijuana or its equivalent within 30 days.

Some patients might need more cannabis for their medical conditions. In this case, you must have two various doctor certifications that state how much cannabis you need each month.

 

 What is the renewal process?

Patient and caregiver cards are legal for one year. Individuals must complete an application to renew their cards yearly and pay the necessary application fees before their present cards expire.

You can start the renewal procedure within 60 days of your current card’s expiration date.

 

What is a caregiver?

A caregiver is a person at least 21 years old who manages the welfare and care of the minor pursuing medical marijuana. The person using medical marijuana and the caregiver must register with the state and get a card. Caregivers can buy and own marijuana on behalf of eligible patients.

One patient could have up to two caregivers. An individual might only serve as a caregiver for a maximum of three eligible patients.

 

Conclusion

Missouri started selling medicinal marijuana for a range of chronic conditions in 2020. Patients with debilitating, chronic, or else terminal illnesses could improve their quality of life with marijuana.

Registration for a card permits you to purchase the equivalent of four ounces of marijuana every thirty days. The registration procedure is completed online and needs an electronic certification from a state-licensed doctor.

Both patients and caregivers can officially purchase and own marijuana from any certified state dispensary for patients’ personal use.

Do not forget to refer to this article when you decide to apply to the state of Missouri, and good luck!