Thinking of starting a Medical Marihuana Grow to make sure that you can offer marijuana to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver that wants to take your product commercial on a larger range? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so legally, as long as you can successfully obtain a license from the State to do so. This can be a wonderful opportunity with several brand-new owners seeing significant levels of profit as well as success in the market. However, if you make this choice, you do need to ensure that you obtain a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly cause your venture being, most likely, illegal and bring about court activity that will certainly paralyze your company before it starts.
Sadly, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complicated and expensive process. Ask a medical marijuana lawyer, and also they will certainly tell you that you need to see to it that you are prepared. Let's look at the actions you will certainly have to take, the team you need to build as well as the position that you might find yourself in.
Who Can Apply?
The initial question to ask yourself is whether or not you are eligible to apply for a Medical Marihuana Facilities license. The bright side is that any person, an individual or a full company can apply for a license. Applications started in 2017, and there is currently no due date to finish the needed forms. Certainly, there are specific individuals, that, due to the fact that they can not fulfill the minimum monetary demands, or due to the fact that they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their history, are averted from applying. Nevertheless, thinking you don't have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and you, or your group of financiers, fulfill the minimum financial needs, there are 2 major steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The initial step will be completed whether you have a final location for your structure or not. However, if you have already picked a location before submitting your State application, something that we highly advise, you can finish both steps at the very same time.
Pre-Qualification
Pre-qualification is the initial step, and it begins with an extensive background check. There are 2 sections-- 401 and also 404 of the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (M.C.L. 333.27401 et seq.) to refer to when determining who you need to legally disclose as well as whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This includes people such as the spouse of the individual as well as all corporate officers. This is among the reasons it is worth speaking with an MMMA attorney as it can be rather challenging to get all the information correct. The State will wish to do a deep dive into the backgrounds of not only all of the "interested parties," or members/owners of your marijuana business, but the State will also consider the backgrounds of every one of those person's spouses as well. Should anyone have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or otherwise be of "good moral character," the State can deny the whole application. To put it simply, if there is one bad apple in the bunch, the State throws away the entire application. Consequently, it is essential 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 great deal of things that a knowledgeable lawyer can do to help you prepare for your application, and also to ensure that any type of prospective problems with your application are recognized, disclosed or gotten ready for before the application is submitted. Nonetheless, this isn't the only reason why a lawyer will commonly be an essential and required hire.
Think about The Cost
Before your information can be examined by an analyst 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 certainly reject to progress with your application until this has been paid completely. As well as being pricey, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make certain that there are no issues with your application that might bring about it being rejected. An MMFLA attorney can guarantee that this holds true as well as help you navigate any type of challenging concerns. Additionally, before you can obtain State authorization for operation, you will also have to get a municipal or city approval. Each city or township will certainly likewise need you to finish an application and also you will have to pay an application fee there too. The application expense can vary depending on what the city wishes to charge, however, they can not charge more than $5,000.00. A lot of cities as well as townships are charging the maximum amount. In total, the application fees alone are most likely to be in excess of $10,000.00. That does not consist of the costs of ancillary services, such as accounting professionals, engineers, marketers and also various other solutions needed for your application to be complete.
As soon as you have collected and also paid the application fees, all applicants and also supplemental applicants will certainly have their finger prints taken. You may assume that if you already have actually had your fingerprints taken by local law enforcement this step can be missed. Nonetheless, BMMR will certainly decline finger prints unless they are asked for and collected by them with the licensing procedure. You will have to go to an approved place where your finger prints can be collected electronically and sent for review by the State.
Facility License
This is the second step and bear in mind, if you have already picked a location to grow marijuana, you can complete this step with the first. You need to 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 parts called for 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 set forth in the Administrative Rules that regulate MMFLA facilities, with which you must show your business is in compliance.
Your facility needs to be located in a city or township that permits MMFLA companies to run. The MMFLA has strict policies for people as well as companies preparing to grow in a municipality. If you intend to grow in a community, it should have an ordinance that authorizes marihuana facility operations. Colloquially, the municipality should have "opted-in" to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (list of Michigan municipalities who have actually opted in to MMFLA), as well as it should have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the policies and standards for those facilities to run within the city or township. The full standards can be found in 205, yet if you do have any type of questions you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, alternatively, get your attorney to do this for you. As the application proceeds, BMMR will get in touch with applicants, providing information on any various other demands, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.
Approved
Finally, you might gain approval for your license. After you are informed of this, you will 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 yearly, so it is impossible to predict exactly what it will be. Nonetheless, beginning in 2019, regardless of which license you get, anticipate the assessment to be imposed and also for that assessment to be substantial.
Final thought.
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 by your side, this process can be far easier, as well as you will certainly gain professional recommendations on exactly how to proceed correctly to make certain that your application is accepted. Even after you obtain approval, legal guidance is suggested to assure you stay on top of changes to the law and also regulations, and so that you can remain in compliance as well as keep your company open.
Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we specialize in assisting customers get MMFLA licenses and ensuring continuing compliance.
Should you decide to retain counsel to assist you on your licensing journey, give us a call.
No comments:
Post a Comment