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

Thinking of beginning a Medical Marihuana Grow to make sure that you can provide cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that wants to take your product commercial on a larger range? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so lawfully, as long as you can successfully obtain a license from the State to do so. This can be a great chance with several brand-new owners seeing remarkable degrees of profit and also success in the market. Nevertheless, if you make this choice, you do need to ensure that you obtain a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly lead to your venture being, most likely, illegal and also result in court action that will certainly maim your company before it starts.

Regrettably, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complex and also pricey process. Ask a medical marijuana attorney, and they will tell you that you need to make sure that you are prepared. Let's consider the actions you will need to take, the team you need to construct as well as the position that you may find yourself in.

Who Can Apply?

The initial inquiry to ask yourself is whether or not you are eligible to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. The good news is that any individual, an individual or a full business can apply for a license. Applications began in 2017, and also there is currently no target date to finish the needed forms. Of course, there are specific individuals, who, because they can not satisfy the minimum financial demands, or since they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their history, are precluded from applying. Nevertheless, assuming you don't have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and also you, or your team of financiers, satisfy the minimum economic needs, there are two major steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The first step will certainly be completed whether you have a final location for your structure or not. However, if you have already chosen an area prior to submitting your State application, something that we extremely advise, you can finish both steps 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 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 divulge 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 one of the reasons that it is worth talking to an MMMA attorney as it can be quite tricky to get all the information correct. The State will certainly wish to do a deep dive into the backgrounds of not only all of the "interested parties," or members/owners of your cannabis company, but the State will certainly also look into the histories of all of those individual's spouses also. Should any person have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or not be of "good moral character," the State can deny the whole application. In other words, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State tosses out the entire application. As a result, it is very important 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 an experienced attorney can do to help you prepare for your application, and also to guarantee that any type of prospective issues with your application are recognized, revealed or gotten ready for before the application is submitted. Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason why a lawyer will often be a vital and required hire.

Consider The Cost

Before your information can be reviewed by an expert from the Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation (BMMR), you need to pay a $6000 cost for your application. BMMR will certainly refuse to progress with your application until this has been paid in full. Along with being costly, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make sure that there are no problems with your application that could result in it being rejected. An MMFLA attorney can make certain that this holds true and help you navigate any difficult concerns. Additionally, before you can acquire State approval for operation, you will also have to obtain a municipal or city authorization. Each city or township will additionally need you to finish an application and you will certainly have to pay an application fee there as well. The application cost can vary depending on what the city wants to charge, nevertheless, they can not charge greater than $5,000.00. A lot of cities and also townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application costs alone are likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That doesn't consist of the costs of ancillary services, such as accounting professionals, engineers, marketers and also various other solutions needed for your application to be full.

Once you have collected and also paid the application fees, all candidates and supplemental applicants will have their finger prints taken. You could assume that if you currently have actually had your finger prints taken by local law enforcement this action can be missed. However, BMMR will certainly decline fingerprints unless they are asked for and also collected by them with the licensing procedure. You will need to go to an approved location where your fingerprints can be collected digitally as well as sent for evaluation by the State.

Facility License

This is the 2nd step and bear in mind, if you have already chosen an area to grow cannabis, you can finish this step with the first. You must be prepared to fulfill all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will need to have a business plan. However, that plan needs to include particular things. You must have every one of the components needed 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 set forth 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 services to operate. The MMFLA has strict rules for individuals and services preparing to grow in a municipality. If you wish to grow in a municipality, it should have an ordinance that authorizes marihuana facility operations. Colloquially, the municipality needs to have "opted-in" to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities that have opted in to MMFLA), and it should have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the policies and also standards for those centers to operate within the city or township. The full guidelines can be discovered in 205, but if you do have any type of inquiries you need to call your municipal authority. Or, conversely, get your legal representative to do this for you. As the application progresses, BMMR will certainly call applicants, giving details on any type of various other needs, consisting of a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Approved

Finally, you might gain authorization for your license. After you are notified of this, you will certainly need to pay for a regulatory assessment. Presently, 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 impossible to anticipate precisely what it will be. Nonetheless, beginning in 2019, regardless of which license you acquire, expect the assessment to be imposed and also for that assessment to be significant.

Conclusion.

We hope this helps you make a decision whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Remember, with a lawyer at hand, this process can be far easier, and you will certainly gain professional advice on exactly how to proceed properly to make sure that your application is approved. Even after you acquire authorization, legal guidance is suggested to assure you stay on top of modifications to the law and also guidelines, and so that you can stay in compliance and also keep your organisation open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we focus on aiding clients acquire MMFLA licenses as well as ensuring continuing compliance.

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

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