KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- — The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services denied the majority of the state's applications to grow medical marijuana.
But six of the 60 business owners approved to grow in the state are in the metro area, including Nate Ruby.
"We're going to renovate this completely and from there, this is where all the plants will be flowering," said Ruby, owner of Onyx 7, showing 41 Action News around the greenhouse he bought for cultivating cannabis.
Applications were blind-scored, and the state tallied up the points. The threshold appears to be 1,479.41 points. The applicant with the lowest score was 229.27 points and the highest was 1,584.20.
"I still applied for five dispensaries, so still waiting to find out about those," said Ruby, a 26-year-old law student. "I'm just grateful that we were able to write a really good application and the state agreed with us."
More than 500 people submitted cultivation applications to the state. For a non-refundable fee of $10,000, applicants must show the state they have good business sense.
Ruby said raising the money and finding the right people to back him took the longest – and might have helped him stand out.
"I think one is being a law student," Ruby said. "It's no different than a law school exam at the end of the day. I answered the question. We've been working on this for over two years now, figuring it out."
Many people have multiple applications in to better their chances. Mark Buddemeyer, with KC Greenfields, is one of those people, whose cultivation application was denied. But he still is waiting to learn the status of his manufacturing application on Jan. 10.
KC Greenfields started as a consulting firm for those hoping to get into the cannabis industry.
"It's like we thought that at least somebody would be getting it," Buddemeyer said. "There were some local companies that got it, but we just didn't see quite as many smaller mom-and-pop operations getting it."
Buddemeyer said people who were denied are upset that the state seemed to award more points to locations in rural, low-income areas.
"Everybody was made aware of it at a point early enough," Buddemeyer said, "but the problem was most people already had their facilities arranged and locations picked. They couldn't really just uproot and try to find a new location."
However, the medical marijuana market is just starting and will continue to expand.
"Keep your heads up, everybody. We're going to get there," Buddemeyer said.
The state awarded 21 out of 24 transportation licenses, eight of which are in the metro.
APPROVALS IN KANSAS CITY AREA:
TRANSPORTATION FACILITY
- Proper Kansas City LLC, 2025 Saint Joseph Ave, St. Joseph
- Charas Capital LLC, Lot 1 of the Hydro Conduit Subdivision, Riverside -- I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THAT'S AT, CAN'T FIND ADDRESS
- Missouri Made Marijuana LLC, 8651 Hillcrest Rd, Kansas City
- Red Eye Transport LLC, 5620 E. Mo 150, Kansas City
- KC Cann Transport LLC, 401 NW 10th St, Blue Springs
- Next Wave MO LLC, 14655 Prospect, Kansas City
- Taney Street Nursery LLC, 1251 Taney St, North Kansas City
- Missouri Hemp Improvement Company, 1520 Swift Ave, North Kansas City
- CLS Med-Can Logistics LLC, 24 W 78th St, Kansas City
CULTIVATION FACILITY
- Focus Partners LLC, 14655 Prospect, Kansas City - AWARDED TWO LICENSES
- Holistic Missouri LLC, 14514 S US 71 Hwy, Kansas City
- CPC of Missouri Smithville LLC, 14816 169 Hwy, Smithville - AWARDED THREE LICENSES
- Local Leaf LLC, 900 Enterprise Rd, Butler
- Missouri Made Marijuana LLC, 301 S. Outer Belt Road E, Grain Valley
- OXG LLC, 3823 N Cobbler Rd, Independence
- Anyone whose license was denied can file an appeal to the state within 30 days of receiving the denial.
Some applicants received conditional denials, meaning they could be awarded a license if another higher-ranking business gives up or loses its license. For example, if the 60th ranked business loses or gives up its license, the license will go to the 61st ranking business, and so on.
The state will announce the remaining approvals on the following dates:
- Infused Products Manufacturing facilities: approximately Jan. 10, 2020
- Dispensary facilities: approximately Jan. 24, 2020
- Seed to Sale: Jan. 31, 2020
