Considering starting a Medical Marihuana Grow to ensure that you can provide cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that intends to take your item commercial on a larger scale? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, now you can do so legally, as long as you can successfully obtain a license from the State to do so. This might be an amazing chance with many brand-new owners seeing significant levels of earnings and success in the market. Nevertheless, if you make this choice, you do need to see to it that you obtain a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly result in your venture being, more than likely, prohibited as well as cause court activity that will cripple your company before it starts.
Unfortunately, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complicated and pricey process. Ask a medical marijuana attorney, and also they will certainly inform you that you need to ensure that you are prepared. Let's take a look at the steps you will certainly need to take, the team you need to build as well as 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. Fortunately is that anyone, an individual or a full business can apply for a license. Applications began in 2017, and there is presently no due date to complete the required forms. Naturally, there are specific individuals, who, because they can not fulfill the minimum monetary requirements, or because they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their history, are precluded from applying. Nevertheless, assuming you do not have a disqualifying criminal conviction, as well as you, or your team of investors, satisfy the minimum monetary demands, there are 2 main actions to the MMFLA licensing application process. The primary step will be completed whether you have a final location for your structure or not. Nonetheless, if you have actually already selected a place before sending your State application, something that we highly advise, you can complete both actions at the same time.
Pre-Qualification
Pre-qualification is the initial step, and it starts with an extensive background check. There are 2 sections-- 401 and 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 reveal and also whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This consists of individuals such as the spouse of the individual as well as all corporate officers. This is just one of the reasons it is worth speaking with an MMMA attorney as it can be rather tricky to get all the details correct. The State will certainly intend 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 additionally check out the backgrounds of every one 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. To put it simply, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws out the whole application. Therefore, it is very important to learn about the histories of the individuals you have in your investment group, prior to applying for your Medical Marihuana Facilities License. There are a lot of things that a seasoned lawyer can do to help you prepare for your application, as well as to make sure that any kind of prospective issues with your application are understood, divulged or prepared for before the application is submitted. Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason a lawyer will frequently be an essential and necessary hire.
Take into consideration The Expense
Before your details can be examined by an expert from the Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation (BMMR), you need to pay a $6000 fee for your application. BMMR will reject to move forward with your application until this has been paid in full. As well as being expensive, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make certain that there are no issues with your application that could result in it being turned down. An MMFLA attorney can guarantee that this is the case and also help you navigate any challenging concerns. Even more, before you can get State authorization for operation, you will also need to obtain a municipal or city approval. Each city or township will likewise need you to finish an application and also you will need to pay an application fee there too. The application price can range depending on what the city wants to charge, nonetheless, they can not charge greater than $5,000.00. The majority of cities and townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application costs alone are most likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That does not include the costs of ancillary services, such as accountants, engineers, marketing professionals and various other services needed for your application to be complete.
When you have collected as well as paid the application fees, all candidates and also supplemental applicants will have their fingerprints taken. You may assume that if you currently have actually had your fingerprints taken by local law enforcement this step can be missed. Nevertheless, BMMR will certainly not accept finger prints unless they are requested and also collected by them through the licensing procedure. You will certainly need to go to an accepted place where your fingerprints can be collected digitally and submitted for evaluation by the State.
Facility License
This is the 2nd step and keep in mind, if you have already picked a location to grow marijuana, you can finish this step with the first. You should be prepared to meet all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will certainly need to have a business plan. Nonetheless, that plan must include particular things. You must have all of the components 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 should be located in a city or township that allows MMFLA companies to operate. The MMFLA has strict regulations for people as well as companies intending to grow in a municipality. If you intend to grow in a district, it needs to have an ordinance that authorizes marihuana facility operations. Colloquially, the municipality must have "opted-in" to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities that have opted in to MMFLA), and it needs to have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the rules and guidelines for those centers to operate within the city or township. The complete guidelines can be located in 205, but if you do have any type of questions you need to call your municipal authority. Or, alternatively, get your attorney to do this for you. As the application progresses, BMMR will certainly get in touch with applicants, giving information on any type of other needs, consisting of a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.
Authorized
Ultimately, you may gain approval for your license. After you are notified of this, you will certainly need to pay for a regulatory assessment. Presently, 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 every year, so it is difficult to predict precisely what it will be. Nevertheless, starting in 2019, no matter which license you acquire, anticipate the assessment to be imposed and for that assessment to be significant.
Verdict.
We hope this helps you determine whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Keep in mind, with a legal representative at hand, this process can be much easier, and you will acquire expert suggestions on exactly how to proceed properly to make sure that your application is accepted. Even after you get authorization, legal guidance is suggested to ensure you stay on top of changes to the legislation as well as regulations, and so that you can continue to be in compliance and keep your organisation open.
Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we specialize in assisting clients get MMFLA licenses as well as guaranteeing continuing compliance.
Should you decide to retain counsel to aid you on your licensing journey, give us a call.
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