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

Thinking of starting a Medical Marihuana Grow to make sure that you can offer cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that wishes to take your product commercial on a bigger scale? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so lawfully, so long as you can successfully get a license from the State to do so. This can be a fantastic possibility with several brand-new owners seeing incredible levels of profit and also success in the market. Nevertheless, if you make this choice, you do need to make certain that you obtain a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly lead to your endeavor being, probably, unlawful and also lead to court activity that will maim your business before it starts.

Sadly, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complicated as well as pricey process. Ask a medical marijuana lawyer, and they will certainly tell you that you need to see to it that you are prepared. Let's check out the steps you will have to take, the team you need to develop and also the position that you may find yourself in.

Who Can Apply?

The initial question to ask yourself is whether or not you are qualified to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. The bright side is that anybody, an individual or a full business can apply for a license. Applications began in 2017, as well as there is presently no deadline to complete the required forms. Naturally, there are particular people, that, due to the fact that they can not satisfy the minimal monetary needs, or because they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their history, are prevented from applying. Nonetheless, thinking you do not have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and you, or your team of investors, fulfill the minimum financial demands, there are two primary actions to the MMFLA licensing application process. The first step will be completed whether you have a final location for your structure or not. However, if you have actually already chosen a location prior to submitting your State application, something that we highly advise, you can complete both actions at the same time.

Pre-Qualification

Pre-qualification is the first step, and it starts with an extensive background check. There are 2 sections-- 401 as well as 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 individuals 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 attorney as it can be fairly tricky to get all the information correct. The State will intend to do a deep dive into the backgrounds of not only all of the "interested parties," or members/owners of your marijuana business, but the State will additionally look into the histories of every one of those person's spouses too. Should any person have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or otherwise be of "good moral character," the State can refute the entire application. To put it simply, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws away the whole application. Therefore, it is important to learn about the backgrounds of the individuals you have in your investment group, prior to applying for your Medical Marihuana Facilities License. There are a great deal of things that a seasoned lawyer can do to assist you prepare for your application, as well as to make certain that any kind of potential issues with your application are known, divulged or gotten ready for before the application is sent. Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason why an attorney will typically be a crucial and necessary hire.

Think about The Cost

Before your info can be assessed 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 refuse to progress with your application until this has been paid completely. Along with being pricey, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make certain that there are no issues with your application that can result in it being rejected. An MMFLA lawyer can guarantee that this is the case and also help you navigate any type of complicated problems. Even more, before you can obtain State authorization for operation, you will certainly also have to get a municipal or city authorization. Each city or township will additionally need you to finish an application and you will need 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 as well as townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application charges alone are most likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That doesn't include the costs of ancillary services, such as accounting professionals, designers, marketing experts as well as various other services needed for your application to be full.

When you have collected and paid the application fees, all candidates as well as supplemental candidates will have their finger prints taken. You could think that if you currently have had your fingerprints taken by local law enforcement this action can be avoided. Nevertheless, BMMR will certainly not accept fingerprints unless they are asked for as well as collected by them with the licensing procedure. You will certainly need to go to an approved location where your finger prints can be collected digitally as well as submitted for review by the State.

Facility License

This is the second step and remember, if you have already picked an area to grow marijuana, you can finish this step with the first. You need to be prepared to satisfy all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will certainly need to have a business plan. Nonetheless, that plan should 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), and 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 needs to be located in a city or township that allows MMFLA services to run. The MMFLA has strict rules for individuals and services intending to grow in a municipality. If you intend to grow in a town, it has to have an ordinance that authorizes marihuana facility operations. Colloquially, the municipality should have "opted-in" to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities who have actually opted in to MMFLA), as well as it has to have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the policies and also guidelines for those centers to operate within the city or township. The complete standards can be discovered in 205, yet if you do have any questions you need to call your municipal authority. Or, alternatively, get your attorney to do this for you. As the application progresses, BMMR will get in touch with applicants, giving details on any various other requirements, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Accepted

Ultimately, you may get approval 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 every year, so it is impossible to anticipate precisely what it will be. Nevertheless, starting in 2019, despite which license you acquire, anticipate the assessment to be imposed and for that assessment to be substantial.

Final thought.

We hope this helps you choose 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 easier, and you will acquire experienced advice on just how to proceed appropriately to make sure that your application is accepted. Even after you obtain approval, legal guidance is advised to assure you stay on top of changes to the law and also regulations, and so that you can remain in compliance and also keep your business open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we specialize in helping customers acquire MMFLA licenses and also making sure continuing compliance.

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