MoCannTrade celebrates Application-Eve

By Brandon Dunn

MoCannTrade members, leadership, media, and patients gathered at BeLeaf in St. Louis on Monday morning to celebrate the journey leading to the first official step for prospective patients and businesses tomorrow: the launch of the final applications.

Although the law allowed patients to begin consulting with their physicians about medical cannabis all the way back in December 2018, physicians could do little more than discuss theoretical answers. Now with applications in-hand, prospective patients can finally ask their doctors for certification that allows them to become state certified, providing a clear path moving forward.

While many outside the cannabis community or industry may look past June 4, the day has come to symbolize a milestone of hard work and progress for activists, patients, practitioners, and all those who helped to push last year’s Amendment 2 to becoming the most accepted and most active issue or candidate option on 2018 ballots.

But when MoCannTrade the spokesperson, Jack Cardetti, spoke to reporters about the successes of Amendment 2 thus far, saying that immediately after passage the new focus became June 4.

Under the law the Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior services was mandated to make applications available both to patients and license applicants by the deadline, but many in the state questioned whether a new division within the department could be up and functioning, let alone establish rules under such a strict time frame.

“Across the board we believe Missouri Department of Health has done an excellent job, not just making sure this happens on the timeline prescribed by amendment 2, but doing so in a way that everyone feels really good about,” Cardetti explained. He lauded praise on the division for their ability to meet deadlines, but also be open to input and make an effort to interact with the public.

As did Andrew Mullins, Executive Director of MoCannTrade, “We are really excited for tomorrow’s application reveal from the department, thus far they’ve met all the deadlines and stuck to the timeline laid out in Amendment 2 while making extensive efforts to collect public feedback and comments on draft rules, and hold public forums in all corners of the state of Missouri.”

Cardetti also spoke about the frustrations, confusion, and slow delivery encountered in nearly all of the 32 other states that have attempted to implement medical marijuana programs and how Missouri has yet to run into the same sort of cumbersome issues.

“We have just come through our first legislative session, there were more than 20 bills introduced that would have amended Amendment 2 in some way, none of those were passed. As we sit here today we’re really excited that tomorrow Missouri patients, and those that want to be in this industry, will have applications in their hands, because that’s going to be the first step in making this – what we believe is one of the best medical marijuana laws in the entire country,” Cardetti concluded.

Cardetti spoke about the importance of avoiding the pitfalls that other state encountered saying, “Amendment 2, first and foremost, was always about patients and veterans, and how were we going to bring the relief they need without long delays.”

Mitch Meyers of BeLeaf also spoke about their role in the medical cannabis industry already. BeLeaf is one of two licensed facilities in Missouri that has been able to grow medicinal use marijuana since 2015.

Meyers said, “even in this brief amount of time and the small amount of patients we’ve had, we’ve seen great impact in these families’ lives over having access to this plant.”

Meyers also touched on the economic development that the cannabis industry brings, discussing that licensees will bring in opportunity and create job growth, but that the ancillary businesses will see economic benefits perhaps 3x the direct impact of the cannabis businesses themselves.

Coltyn Turner, the teen who treated his Crohn’s Disease with medical cannabis, and has gone on to be an advocate and now the founder of the newly formed Coltyn Turner Foundation, said that after his diagnosis in 2011 he spent years battling not only his illness but also the side effects of the pharmaceuticals he was prescribed.

In 2014 Coltyn’s father took him to Colorado, after 7 months he was in complete remission and has maintained remission for nearly 5 years with cannabis alone.

“When I read about Amendment 2 I was really grateful and really hopeful for people in this state,” Turner said, “Amendment 2 was the clear choice for patients like me.”

The Coltyn Turner Foundation was founded to raise funds for medical cannabis research.

Dr. Trish Hurford and Dr. Mimi Vo also spoke, explaining how patients should interact with their physician, and what to expect should they need to find a physician in the case that their primary care physician or specialist is not open to discussing medical marijuana.