Thinking about beginning a Medical Marihuana Grow so that you can provide cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver who wants to take your product commercial on a bigger scale? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so legally, so long as you can successfully obtain a license from the State to do so. This might be a great chance with numerous new owners seeing incredible degrees of earnings and success in the market. Nonetheless, if you make this choice, you do need to make sure that you get a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly lead to your venture being, probably, unlawful and lead to court action that will cripple your company before it begins.
Sadly, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complicated and also pricey process. Ask a medical marijuana attorney, and also they will tell you that you need to see to it that you are prepared. Let’s look at the steps you will certainly need to take, the team you need to construct and the position that you may find yourself in.
Who Can Apply?
The very first concern to ask yourself is whether or not you are eligible to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. Fortunately is that any person, an individual or a full company can apply for a license. Applications began in 2017, and also there is presently no target date to finish the needed forms. Obviously, there are certain people, that, since they can not satisfy the minimum monetary requirements, or since they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their background, are prevented from applying. However, assuming you do not have a disqualifying criminal conviction, as well as you, or your team of financiers, fulfill the minimal monetary requirements, there are 2 main actions to the MMFLA licensing application process. The initial step will be finished whether you have a final location for your structure or not. Nonetheless, if you have already picked an area before submitting your State application, something that we extremely suggest, you can complete both steps at the same time.
Pre-Qualification
Pre-qualification is the first step, and it begins with an extensive background check. There are two sections– 401 and 404 of the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (M.C.L. 333.27401 et seq.) to refer to when establishing who you need to legally divulge and also whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This consists of people such as the spouse of the individual as well as all corporate officers. This is just one of the reasons it is worth speaking with an Mmma lawyer as it can be quite complicated to get all the details 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 check into the backgrounds of every one of those person’s spouses also. Should anyone have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or otherwise be of “good moral character,” the State can reject the entire application. In other words, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws away the whole application. As a result, it is very important to understand 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 knowledgeable lawyer can do to assist you get ready for your application, as well as to ensure that any kind of potential concerns with your application are recognized, disclosed or planned for before the application is sent. Nonetheless, this isn’t the only reason that an attorney will typically be a crucial and needed hire.
Think about The Cost
Before your information can be evaluated by an expert 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 reject to progress with your application until this has been paid completely. As well as being costly, this fee is non-refundable so you want to see to it that there are no issues with your application that can cause it being declined. An MMFLA lawyer can make certain that this is the case and also help you navigate any type of tricky problems. Additionally, before you can acquire State authorization for operation, you will certainly 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 as well. The application expense can vary depending on what the city wants to charge, nonetheless, they can not charge more than $5,000.00. A lot of cities and 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 include the costs of ancillary services, such as accountants, engineers, marketers as well as other solutions essential for your application to be complete.
Once you have collected and paid the application fees, all applicants as well as supplemental candidates will certainly have their fingerprints taken. You could believe that if you already have had your finger prints taken by local law enforcement this action can be missed. Nonetheless, BMMR will certainly decline finger prints unless they are asked for as well as collected by them via the licensing process. You will certainly have to go to an approved place where your finger prints can be collected digitally and submitted for review by the State.
Facility License
This is the 2nd step and bear in mind, if you have already selected an area to grow cannabis, you can finish this step with the first. You need to be prepared to fulfill all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will need to have a business plan. Nonetheless, that plan has to include certain things. You must have every one of the parts 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 should be located in a city or township that permits MMFLA organisations to operate. The MMFLA has strict guidelines for people and also businesses intending to grow in a municipality. If you intend to grow in a municipality, it needs to 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 actually opted in to MMFLA), and also it needs to have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the regulations as well as standards for those centers to operate within the city or township. The complete guidelines can be found in 205, but if you do have any type of inquiries you need to call your municipal authority. Or, alternatively, get your legal representative to do this for you. As the application advances, BMMR will call candidates, providing information on any various other needs, consisting of a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.
Approved
Lastly, you may get authorization for your license. After you are informed of this, you will certainly 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 annually, so it is difficult to anticipate precisely what it will be. Nevertheless, starting in 2019, regardless of which license you obtain, expect the assessment to be imposed and also for that assessment to be significant.
Verdict.
We hope this helps you decide whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Bear in mind, with a legal representative on your side, this process can be far simpler, and you will obtain professional recommendations on how to proceed appropriately to make certain that your application is accepted. Even after you obtain approval, legal advice is recommended to ensure you stay on top of adjustments to the law and regulations, and so that you can stay in compliance and keep your service open.
Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we concentrate on helping clients get MMFLA licenses as well as ensuring continuing compliance.
Should you choose to retain counsel to assist you on your licensing journey, give us a call.