Thinking about starting a Medical Marihuana Grow so that you can offer cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that wishes to take your product commercial on a bigger scale? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so lawfully, as long as you can successfully obtain a license from the State to do so. This could be a fantastic possibility with lots of brand-new owners seeing significant degrees of revenue as well as success in the market. However, if you make this decision, you do need to see to it that you obtain a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will result in your venture being, more than likely, prohibited and also lead to court activity that will certainly paralyze your company before it begins.

Unfortunately, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complex and costly process. Ask a medical marijuana attorney, and they will inform you that you need to make certain that you are prepared. Let’s consider the steps you will certainly have to take, the team you need to build and the position that you might find yourself in.

Who Can Apply?

The initial inquiry to ask yourself is whether or not you are qualified to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. The good news is that anybody, an individual or a full company can apply for a license. Applications began in 2017, and also there is currently no target date to complete the needed forms. Certainly, there are specific individuals, that, because they can not meet the minimum monetary demands, or due to the fact that they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their history, are prevented from applying. However, thinking you don’t have a disqualifying criminal conviction, as well as you, or your team of financiers, satisfy the minimal economic requirements, there are 2 main steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The very first step will certainly be finished whether you have a final location for your structure or not. However, if you have already picked a place before submitting your State application, something that we extremely advise, you can finish both actions at the very same time.

Pre-Qualification

Pre-qualification is the initial step, and it begins with an extensive background check. There are two sections– 401 as well as 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 all corporate officers. This is among the reasons why it is worth consulting with an MMMA lawyer as it can be quite tricky to get all the details correct. The State will want 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 also check into the histories of all of those individual’s spouses as well. Should any person have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or otherwise be of “good moral character,” the State can refute the whole application. In other words, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws away the entire application. Therefore, it is necessary to find out about the backgrounds of the persons you have in your investment group, before applying for your Medical Marihuana Facilities License. There are a lot of things that an experienced lawyer can do to aid you prepare for your application, and to make sure that any possible problems with your application are recognized, revealed or prepared for before the application is sent. Nonetheless, this isn’t the only reason that a lawyer will usually be an important and required hire.

Take into consideration The Expense

Before your info can be evaluated by an analyst from the Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation (BMMR), you need to pay a $6000 charge for your application. BMMR will certainly refuse to move forward with your application until this has been paid completely. In addition to being expensive, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make sure that there are no issues with your application that might result in it being rejected. An MMFLA attorney can make certain that this is the case as well as help you navigate any type of challenging problems. Even more, before you can obtain State authorization for operation, you will certainly also need to obtain a municipal or city authorization. Each city or township will likewise require you to complete an application as well as you will certainly need to pay an application fee there as well. The application expense can vary depending on what the city wants to charge, nevertheless, they can not charge more than $5,000.00. Most cities as well as townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application costs alone are likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That does not include the costs of ancillary services, such as accounting professionals, designers, marketing experts and also various other services essential for your application to be total.

As soon as you have gathered and also paid the application fees, all candidates and supplemental candidates will have their finger prints taken. You may think that if you currently have actually had your fingerprints taken by local police this action can be avoided. However, BMMR will certainly not accept fingerprints unless they are requested and also collected by them via the licensing process. You will have to go to an approved place where your finger prints can be collected digitally and sent for review by the State.

Facility License

This is the second step and bear in mind, if you have already chosen a place to grow marijuana, you can complete this step with the first. You should be prepared to fulfill all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will need to have a business plan. Nevertheless, that plan has to include particular things. You must have all of the parts required 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 has to be located in a city or township that permits MMFLA organisations to operate. The MMFLA has strict rules for people and also businesses intending to grow in a municipality. If you intend to grow in a district, it must have an ordinance that authorizes marihuana facility operations. Colloquially, the municipality needs to have “opted-in” to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities that have actually opted in to MMFLA), as well as it has to have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the policies and also standards for those facilities to operate within the city or township. The full standards can be discovered in 205, however if you do have any concerns you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, additionally, get your attorney to do this for you. As the application advances, BMMR will certainly speak to candidates, giving details on any type of other requirements, consisting of a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.

Authorized

Lastly, you might acquire approval for your license. After you are informed of this, you will certainly need to pay for a regulatory assessment. Currently, 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 anticipate precisely what it will be. However, beginning in 2019, despite which license you acquire, expect the assessment to be imposed as well as for that assessment to be substantial.

Conclusion.

We hope this helps you decide whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Keep in mind, with a lawyer by your side, this process can be far simpler, as well as you will certainly gain professional advice on just how to proceed correctly to guarantee that your application is approved. Even after you acquire authorization, legal guidance is suggested to ensure you stay on top of adjustments to the law and also guidelines, and so that you can remain in compliance and also keep your organisation open.

Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we focus on assisting customers obtain MMFLA licenses and also making sure continuing compliance.

Should you decide to retain counsel to help you on your licensing journey, give us a call.