Rescheduling Marijuana opens industry doors in Missouri
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s Cannabis industry sold $1.3 billion work of marijuana products in its first year of adult use sales and experts are expecting even more in the first full calendar year that marijuana will be legal for anyone 21 and older.
The DEA’s announcement that it’s considering rescheduling cannabis from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III was extremely welcome news for the people coming to Kansas City’s Cannabis Science Conference.
Schedule I drugs are considered to not have any medical purpose and includes drugs like LSD and Heroin. That has also made it extremely hard for scientists like Modern Canna Laboratories Chief Science Officer Jini Glaros to work with it.
“There are probably a lot of medicinal benefits that we don’t know of yet,” Glaros said.
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Right now, Glaros tests medical marijuana products in Florida to make sure they’re safe for consumers but she says finding new uses for is primarily only happening overseas.
“Looking at research from Israel and showing the medical impact, that’s where a lot of that research is coming from to show the medicinal benefits of cannabis,” Glaros said.
Even cannabis business that don’t touch marijuana plants directly stand to benefit.
“The US is way behind on that front because research has been hampered for so long,” said Genetica CEO Ben York.
Genetica helps dispensaries track what consumers prefer to help them buy the right product when they return. Better data about how cannabis affects the body will help his software be more accurate for all consumers, and the industry’s largest-growing demographic: women over the age of 50.
“They may have tried products before, they may not have but especially for those who have tried products before, its a very different world today than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago,” said York.
Boston Dickerson’s Show-Me Organics grows, processes, and sells marijuana products in Missouri but he and his brother are biochemists. More information from more research, he says, means more precision for Missourians.
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“As this is being more adopted, more accepted as medicine, we can take our laboratory backgrounds and really dial in how much light how much water do we need for certain plants,” Dickerson said.
The impact will likely stop at the state line, at least for now.
Even if marijuana becomes a Schedule III drug, industry experts still think each state will determine if its legal in their boundaries, leaving Missouri dispensaries to keep scooping up Kansas residents.
“Especially these state line dispensaries,” Dickerson said. “They are throttled Monday through Sunday and no signs of slowing down.”
