Missouri could be the next state to legalize marijuana as 2022 signature campaign kicks off

Call it “recreational,” “rec” or “adult-use” — Missouri could be the next state to legalize marijuana.

In Kansas City and St. Louis over the past week, organizers of the Legal Missouri 2022 ballot initiative petition kicked off a campaign that, if authorized by Missouri voters, would allow any adult 21 or older to purchase cannabis products for any reason.

Recreational cannabis represents a huge business opportunity: In states that have already transitioned from medical-only marijuana systems to ones that include recreational sales for adults, industry revenues have typically expanded five-fold, said David Brodsky, director of retail at The Farmer’s Wife dispensaries in southern Missouri. Brodsky also worked as a Colorado cannabis entrepreneur for much of the 2010s, and he said the pattern held up there, after adult-use sales were legalized in 2012.

To date, retail dispensaries in Missouri have racked up $186.1 million in sales since lawful transactions began in mid-October 2020, state health department records show.

Most observers see little appetite for marijuana reform advancing through the Republican-dominated Missouri legislature, so advocates have worked through the initiative petition system.

How would Legal Missouri 2022’s measure change Missouri marijuana?

Missouri’s existing medical marijuana system, adopted with a 65-percent voter majority in 2018, would remain in place if legalization becomes part of the Missouri constitution. [Read more at Springfield News-Leader]