Missouri medical marijuana faces further delay as no testing facilities are approved

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nearly two years after voters approved medical marijuana in Missouri, it’s still not available for purchase.

Though some dispensaries are now officially open and product has been grown, there are still no operational facilities, which are required to test the product.

The lights are hung, the pallets are stacked and everything seems like it’s ready for the cultivation of 18,000 medical marijuana plants at Greenlight’s Kansas City 96,000-square-foot warehouse. The only thing Greenlight is waiting for is the literal “green light” from the state to start planting.

“Everyone thought this would be progressed along a little bit faster. We’ve got a little over 60,000 patients that are waiting for guys like me to get up and growing,” John Mueller, Greenlight CEO, said.

Missouri is now renewing medical marijuana cards for people who have had them more than a year without any product.

“We were very clear that dispensaries wouldn’t be open to buy it, retail wise, until this year until mid year. Many may not have understood that,” said Lyndall Fraker, state director for the DHSS section for Medical Marijuana.

That original timeframe has been delayed in part by COVID-19.

“It slowed the industry down. Your planning and zoning, your city council, everyone across the state kind of took a pause,” Mueller said. [Read More @ Fox News]