What Missouri’s medical marijuana industry needs to know about evaluations and scoring

What Missouri’s medical marijuana industry needs to know about evaluations and scoring

By Brandon Dunn

The most common questions among the cannabis industry in Missouri all revolve around licensing and how to best ensure approval.

In the initial wave of applications and any additional application period to follow, where more applicants apply than the number of available licenses exist for cultivation, dispensary, manufacturing, or testing licenses or certifications in a given area, the department will use a numeric scoring system to grade each of ten categories of evaluation criteria.

All applicants must first meet the minimum standards for approval.

The minimum standards :

  • 1. Authorization to operate as a business in Missouri;
  • 2. That the entity is majority owned by natural persons who have been residents of Missouri for at least one (1) year;
  • 3. That the entity is not under substantially common control as another entity or a combination of other entities in violation of 19 CSR 20-95.040(3)(C-D);
  • 4. That the entity is not within one thousand (1000) feet of an existing elementary or secondary school, daycare, or church, or, if a local government allows for closer proximity to schools, daycares, and churches, that the entity complies with the local government’s requirements;
  • 5. Eligibility to operate in a local jurisdiction; and
  • 6. That the entity will not be owned, in whole or in part, or have as an officer, director, board member, or manager, any individual with a disqualifying felony offense.

The ten additional evaluation criteria for scoring are outlined below with links to articles detailing the advisory committees for each, the finalized questions by each committee, and their weight:

The scoring process will require applications to be separated from any identifying information and assigned a numerical identifier for use during scoring. Next applications are scored based on the evaluation criteria scoring table.

Responses will be scored 1-10, satisfactory/unsatisfactory, or yes/no – depending upon the question.

Responses may take the form of written answers or written answers with attachments. Written responses to evaluation criteria questions must not refer to facility business names and must refer to individuals by title and initials only, e.g. “Owner A.E.M.” or “Principal Officer R.W.M.”

Any attachments must be submitted in both redacted and unredacted versions. Redacted versions must obscure the facility business names and the names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of the applicant and of any owners, principal officers, managers, or other individuals mentioned in the application.

Should a response identify an individual by name it will not be scored.

The department will make an effort to have the same evaluation criteria question in each application be scored by the same individual. Answers that vary significantly from other answers to the same questions may be rescored. Once a question has been rescored, the first score will be discarded, and the second score will be final.

Once all applications have been assigned an initial rank and score the department will reconnect the applications with their identifying information, for testing facilities this is the final step, for all other application types the department will have additional weighting criteria.

Cultivation, manufacturing, and dispensary facilities will be awarded additional points as follows:

A. Any facility seeking a license to locate within a zip code area that has an average employment rate of fifty-four point four (54.4) to fifty-six point six (56.6) percent will receive a scoring increase of thirty (30) percent of the average initial score of all applicants of the same facility type within the evaluation criteria topic regarding potential for positive economic impact in the site community; and B. Any facility seeking a license to locate within a zip code area that has an employment rate of zero (0) to fifty-four point three (54.3) percent will receive a scoring increase of forty (40) percent of the average initial score of all applicants of the same facility type within the evaluation criteria topic regarding potential for positive economic impact in the site community.

C. For the purposes of this paragraph, employment rates will be as listed in the “U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey Profile Report: 2013-2017, E5. Employment Status, Population 16 years and over,” published by the Missouri Census Data Center, which is available on the department’s website.

This is the final score for cultivation and manufacturing facilities.

Dispensary facilities will be awarded additional points due to geographic location:

A. First, the highest scoring dispensary facility in each of the one hundred sixty-three (163) Missouri House of Representatives districts as drawn and in effect on December 6, 2018, will receive an increase to its score pursuant to subparagraph C. of this paragraph, and all dispensary facility applicants’ rankings will then be reordered.

B. Finally, any dispensary facility applicant with a location more than twenty-five (25) miles, measured in a straight line, from any other dispensary facility applicant or existing dispensary facility will receive an additional increase to its score pursuant to subparagraph C. of this paragraph, and all dispensary facility applicants’ rankings will again be reordered. The resulting rank and score will be each dispensary facility’s final rank and score. C. Scoring increases due to geographic location will be equal to five (5) percent of the average initial score of the top twenty-four (24) ranked facilities in each congressional district that has at least twenty-four (24) dispensary facility applicants. D. In cases where a house district is segmented by the boundary lines of two or more congressional districts, for purposes of the adjustments in this paragraph, only the segment of that house district with the highest population, as of the 2010 United States Population Census, will be utilized.

Licenses will be issued based on numerical scoring and assigned additional points in order , except when an entity under substantially common control, ownership, or management has applied for more than three (3) cultivation, three (3) manufacturing, or five (5) dispensary licenses. In those cases, the department will only issue licenses to the highest ranked facilities associated with that entity, up to the maximum number allowable in each category of license.

In cases where the maximum number of qualified applicants is not met all qualifying applicants will be accepted, except in cases where an entity under substantially common control, ownership, or management has applied for more than five (5) dispensary licenses and some of those dispensaries are located in congressional districts that were numerically scored. In those cases, the department will first issue licenses to the dispensaries associated with that entity in congressional districts that were not numerically scored. Any remaining dispensaries associated with that entity will be issued licenses according to that dispensary’s rank and score.

In the case of a tie for the last available license, the license will go to:

A. The facility with the highest score in the topic specifically relating to that facility type;

B. If a tie remains, then the facility with the highest score in the business plan topic;

C. If a tie remains, then the facility with the highest score in the character topic;

D. If a tie remains, then the facility with the highest score in the site security topic;

E. If a tie remains, then the facility with the highest score in the economic impact topic;

F. If a tie remains, then the facility with the highest score in the legal cannabis market experience; G. If a tie remains, then the facility will be chosen by lottery.