The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) was granted the authority and responsibility of creating a well-regulated program to ensure the availability of and safe access to medical marijuana. Thus, the Section for Medical Marijuana Regulation (SMMR) was created within DHSS to oversee the Medical Marijuana Regulatory Program (MMRP).
The SMMR’s structure is organized to cover four primary functions: Patient Services, Operations, Facility Licensing, and Facility Compliance. Although the SMMR works in unison to meet overarching goals, each function has definitive goals identified to support the development and success of the MMRP.
SMMR’s Strategic Priorities
- Make medical marijuana accessible for qualifying patients in Missouri;
- Uphold safety and quality standards for medical marijuana; and
- Regulate the medical marijuana industry to comply with Missouri law and keep communities safe.
The Operations Unit is responsible for the cross-cutting administrative functions necessary to support implementation and maintenance of the MMRP and include: budgetary oversight, performance metrics, public communication consisting of both webpage and public education material development, conducting internal and external training, contract management, special project coordination, compilation of reports including the Annual Report to the Governor, strategic planning, and program evaluation.
The Facility Licensing team is instrumental in fairly and effectively licensing facilities in a manner that conveys the SMMR’s commitment to being transparent in its processes and accountable for its decisions. Facility Licensing is responsible for issuing medical marijuana facility licenses and certifications, facility education, response to applicant inquiries, license change application reviews, and facility licenses/certification renewals.
The Facility Compliance team is responsible for creating compliance education, responding to compliance inquiries, commencement inspections, annual and renewal inspections, issuing violations and remediation directives, seed to sale monitoring, and compliance monitoring.
Manufacturing facilities shall not transfer medical marijuana from the facility, except to a testing facility, until the medical marijuana has been tested by a testing facility.
If a cultivation facility is operating with multiple cultivation licenses in the same location, the size limitations of the cultivation facility will be multiplied by the number of licenses.
Submission of an application for a facility license or certification constitutes consent to inspection by the department. A department inspector conducting an inspection pursuant to this section need not give prior notice of the inspection and, during the inspection, must be given access to all areas and property of the facility, including vehicles, wherever located, without delay.
