Supreme Court says no to license for medical pot facility

The Missouri Supreme Court brought an abrupt end to a company’s efforts to get a state license to operate a medical marijuana cultivation facility.

MO CANN Do Inc. filed for the license in 2019, but the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services ultimately denied the application for failing to provide proper proof of its authority to operate as a business in Missouri. The company had included a certificate of incorporation from the Secretary of State’s Office, but DHSS regulation required that it provide a separate certificate of good standing instead.

Although DHSS had notified MO CANN Do of other deficiencies in its application, it didn’t say anything about the certificate mix-up. The company argued that it had waived the need for the certificate of good standing by failing to point out the error.

Judge W. Brent Powell, writing for the unanimous court, called the argument “creative” but said it was the company’s responsibility to provide the required information. Although marijuana was authorized for medicinal use in Missouri by a constitutional amendment and has subsequently been cleared for recreational use by another amendment, it remains a Schedule I substance under state and federal law. The marijuana industry, Powell wrote, “is certainly an industry that must be highly regulated.”

“Even if DHSS did not provide specific notice to MCD of the deficiency in its application, the State cannot be thwarted in its effort to enforce public policy and protect the public interest as it pertains to regulating the cultivation and use of marijuana,” Powell wrote.

The 6-0 ruling, which came less than a month after it was argued on March 7, affirms an earlier decision by the Administrative Hearing Commission. Judge Kelly C. Broniec did not take part in the case. In her prior role as a judge of the Court of Appeals Eastern District, she sat on a panel that heard an earlier stage of the appeal, where she dissented from that court’s ruling in favor of MO CANN Do.

Jeff McPherson, a member of the Armstrong Teasdale team that represented the company on appeal, didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

The case is MO CANN Do Inc. v. Missouri DHSS, SC100172.