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

Considering starting a Medical Marihuana Grow to ensure that you can offer marijuana to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver who intends to take your item commercial on a larger scale? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, now you can do so legally, so long as you can successfully obtain a license from the State to do so. This might be a fantastic possibility with numerous brand-new owners seeing significant degrees of earnings and success in the market. However, if you make this choice, you do need to see to it that you get a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly lead to your venture being, more than likely, unlawful as well as result in court activity that will paralyze your company before it begins.

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

Who Can Apply?

The very first question to ask yourself is whether or not you are qualified to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. Fortunately is that any person, an individual or a full organisation can apply for a license. Applications started in 2017, and there is presently no target date to complete the required forms. Certainly, there are specific people, that, due to the fact that they can not meet the minimal economic requirements, or due to the fact that they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their background, are averted from applying. Nevertheless, thinking you do not have a disqualifying criminal conviction, as well as you, or your team of financiers, fulfill the minimal financial needs, there are 2 primary steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The initial step will certainly be completed whether you have a final location for your structure or not. Nonetheless, if you have already chosen an area prior to sending your State application, something that we extremely recommend, you can finish both actions at the very same time.

Pre-Qualification

Pre-qualification is the initial step, and it begins with an extensive background check. There are two sections-- 401 and also 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 reveal as well as whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This includes individuals such as the spouse of the individual as well as all corporate officers. This is one of the reasons it is worth talking to an Mmma lawyer as it can be fairly difficult to get all the information 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 cannabis business, but the State will also consider the backgrounds of all of those person's spouses too. Should any individual have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or otherwise be of "good moral character," the State can refute the whole application. In other words, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws away the entire application. As a result, it is essential to learn 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 attorney can do to assist you prepare for your application, and to guarantee that any potential issues with your application are recognized, revealed or gotten ready for before the application is sent. Nonetheless, this isn't the only reason why a lawyer will typically be a vital and necessary hire.

Take into consideration The Price

Before your details can be examined by an analyst from the Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation (BMMR), you need to pay a $6000 fee for your application. BMMR will certainly decline to move on with your application until this has been paid in full. As well as being expensive, this fee is non-refundable so you want to see to it that there are no issues with your application that might bring about it being declined. An MMFLA attorney can ensure that this is the case and also help you navigate any kind of challenging issues. Additionally, before you can obtain State approval for operation, you will also need to obtain a municipal or city approval. Each city or township will certainly likewise require you to complete an application as well as you will have to pay an application fee there also. The application expense can range depending on what the city wishes to charge, however, they can not charge more than $5,000.00. Most 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 and other services required for your application to be full.

As soon as you have collected and also paid the application fees, all candidates and also supplemental applicants will have their fingerprints taken. You could believe that if you already have actually had your fingerprints taken by local police this action can be avoided. Nevertheless, BMMR will certainly not accept finger prints unless they are requested and collected by them with the licensing procedure. You will certainly have to go to an approved location where your fingerprints can be collected digitally and submitted for review by the State.

Facility License

This is the second step and keep in mind, if you have already chosen a place to grow marijuana, you can complete this step with the first. You should be prepared to meet all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will certainly need to have a business plan. However, that plan should include specific things. You must have every one of the components required 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 needs to be located in a city or township that allows MMFLA companies to run. The MMFLA has strict regulations for individuals as well as organisations preparing to grow in a municipality. If you wish 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 opted in to MMFLA), and also it should have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the policies as well as guidelines for those centers to operate within the city or township. The complete standards can be discovered in 205, however if you do have any inquiries you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, conversely, get your lawyer to do this for you. As the application proceeds, BMMR will certainly get in touch with candidates, offering info on any other demands, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Authorized

Lastly, you may acquire 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 yearly, so it is impossible to predict specifically what it will be. However, beginning in 2019, regardless of which license you get, anticipate the assessment to be imposed and also for that assessment to be significant.

Verdict.

We hope this helps you choose whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Remember, with a lawyer at hand, this process can be far easier, as well as you will obtain experienced advice on just how to proceed correctly to ensure that your application is approved. Even after you get approval, legal advice is suggested to ensure you stay on top of changes to the legislation and guidelines, and so that you can stay in compliance as well as keep your organisation open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we concentrate on assisting customers obtain MMFLA licenses and guaranteeing continuing compliance.

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