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

Thinking about beginning a Medical Marihuana Grow to make sure that you can offer marijuana to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that intends to take your item commercial on a larger range? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so legally, as long as you can successfully obtain a license from the State to do so. This can be a great opportunity with lots of new owners seeing significant degrees of profit and success in the market. Nevertheless, if you make this decision, you do need to make sure that you obtain a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly lead to your endeavor being, most likely, prohibited as well as lead to court activity that will maim your service before it starts.

Sadly, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complicated and also expensive process. Ask a medical marijuana lawyer, and also they will inform 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 build and the position that you may find yourself in.

Who Can Apply?

The first question to ask yourself is whether or not you are eligible to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. Fortunately 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. Certainly, there are particular individuals, that, because they can not fulfill the minimum economic demands, or due to the fact that they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their background, are prevented from applying. Nonetheless, presuming you don't have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and also you, or your team of financiers, fulfill the minimal financial requirements, there are two main steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The very first step will be finished whether you have a final location for your structure or not. Nevertheless, if you have already picked a location before sending your State application, something that we extremely suggest, you can complete both actions 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 also 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 whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This consists of people such as the spouse of the individual and also all corporate officers. This is one of the reasons why it is worth talking to an MMMA attorney as it can be quite challenging 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 organisation, but the State will additionally check into the backgrounds of all of those person's spouses as well. Should any individual 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 throws out the whole application. As a result, it is essential to understand about the histories 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 skilled attorney can do to assist you prepare for your application, and to ensure that any potential concerns with your application are understood, disclosed or planned for before the application is sent. Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason that a lawyer will usually be an essential and necessary hire.

Take into consideration The Price

Before your info 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 decline 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 sure that there are no problems with your application that can bring about it being rejected. An MMFLA lawyer can make certain that this holds true and also help you navigate any type of challenging problems. Further, before you can get State approval for operation, you will also have to get a municipal or city authorization. Each city or township will certainly additionally need you to finish an application and also you will have to pay an application fee there also. The application cost can range depending on what the city wishes to charge, nevertheless, they can not charge more than $5,000.00. Most 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, designers, marketing experts and other solutions essential for your application to be total.

As soon as you have collected and paid the application fees, all candidates and supplemental applicants will have their finger prints taken. You might assume that if you currently have had your finger prints taken by local police this action can be avoided. However, BMMR will certainly not accept finger prints unless they are asked for as well as collected by them through the licensing procedure. You will certainly have to go to an approved location where your finger prints can be collected electronically and also sent for evaluation by the State.

Facility License

This is the 2nd step and remember, if you have already picked a location to grow marijuana, you can finish this step with the first. You should be prepared to satisfy all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will need to have a business plan. Nonetheless, that plan needs to include specific things. You must have every one of the parts called for 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 businesses to run. The MMFLA has strict policies for people as well as businesses planning to grow in a municipality. If you want to grow in a community, it should 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 that have opted in to MMFLA), as well as it should have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the regulations and also guidelines for those facilities to operate within the city or township. The complete standards can be found in 205, yet if you do have any type of inquiries you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, additionally, get your attorney to do this for you. As the application progresses, BMMR will contact applicants, providing information on any other demands, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Accepted

Ultimately, you might obtain authorization for your license. After you are informed of this, you will 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 predict specifically what it will be. However, starting in 2019, despite which license you get, anticipate the assessment to be imposed and also 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. Remember, with a lawyer at hand, this process can be far simpler, and you will certainly get professional recommendations on just how to proceed appropriately to make sure that your application is approved. Even after you acquire authorization, legal advice is suggested to ensure you stay on top of changes to the legislation as well as guidelines, and so that you can remain in compliance as well as keep your organisation open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we specialize in helping customers obtain MMFLA licenses as well as guaranteeing continuing compliance.

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

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