Thinking about starting a Medical Marihuana Grow to ensure that you can supply cannabis to the medical marihuana market? Are you a Medical Marihuana Act licensed caregiver who wants to take your product commercial on a larger scale? Thanks to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, currently you can do so legally, so long as you can successfully get a license from the State to do so. This could be a wonderful opportunity with many brand-new owners seeing incredible levels of earnings and success in the market. Nonetheless, if you make this decision, you do need to see to it that you get a Michigan commercial grow license. Failing to do so will certainly cause your endeavor being, most likely, illegal and also bring about court activity that will certainly maim your company before it starts.
However, the Michigan commercial grow license application is a long, complicated and also costly process. Ask a medical marijuana lawyer, and they will certainly inform you that you need to see to it that you are prepared. Let's look at the steps you will have to take, the team you need to develop and also the position that you may find yourself in.
Who Can Apply?
The first inquiry to ask yourself is whether or not you are qualified 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 began in 2017, as well as there is presently no deadline to complete the necessary forms. Certainly, there are specific people, that, because they can not fulfill the minimal financial needs, or because they have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their background, are averted from applying. However, thinking you don't have a disqualifying criminal conviction, and also you, or your group of investors, meet the minimal financial demands, there are 2 major steps to the MMFLA licensing application process. The primary step will be completed whether you have a final location for your structure or not. However, if you have actually already chosen a location before sending your State application, something that we highly advise, you can finish both actions at the very same time.
Pre-Qualification
Pre-qualification is the first 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 disclose as well as whether they have a relevant business interest in your operation. This consists of individuals such as the spouse of the individual and also all corporate officers. This is just one of the reasons that it is worth talking to an MMMA attorney as it can be fairly challenging to get all the information correct. The State will certainly wish to do a deep dive into the backgrounds of not only all of the "interested parties," or members/owners of your cannabis business, but the State will certainly also check into the backgrounds of all of those person's spouses as well. Should any individual have a disqualifying criminal conviction in their past, or not 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. As a result, it is essential 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 great deal of things that an experienced attorney can do to aid you plan for your application, and to ensure that any possible problems with your application are recognized, disclosed or gotten ready for before the application is submitted. Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason why a lawyer will frequently be an important and needed hire.
Think about The Expense
Before your information can be reviewed 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 certainly reject to progress with your application until this has been paid in full. Along with being pricey, this fee is non-refundable so you want to make certain that there are no problems with your application that might result in it being rejected. An MMFLA attorney can make sure that this is the case as well as help you navigate any kind of difficult problems. Additionally, before you can acquire State approval for operation, you will certainly also have to obtain a municipal or city approval. Each city or township will also need you to complete an application and also you will certainly have to pay an application fee there as well. The application price can vary depending on what the city wishes to charge, nonetheless, they can not charge greater than $5,000.00. The majority of cities as well as 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 experts as well as other services needed for your application to be total.
When you have collected as well as paid the application fees, all applicants and supplemental applicants will have their fingerprints taken. You could assume that if you already have actually had your finger prints taken by local law enforcement this action can be avoided. However, BMMR will not accept finger prints unless they are requested as well as collected by them via the licensing process. You will need to go to an accepted place where your fingerprints can be collected electronically as well as sent for review by the State.
Facility License
This is the 2nd step and remember, if you have already chosen a location to grow marijuana, you can complete this step with the first. You need to be prepared to satisfy all the MMFLA rules. During this step, you will certainly need to have a business plan. However, that plan must include particular things. You must have all of the parts needed by the State: facility plan, security plan, marketing plan, staffing plan, technology plan, waste disposal plan (if applicable), and 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 allows MMFLA organisations to run. The MMFLA has strict guidelines for people and services planning to grow in a municipality. If you wish to grow in a town, 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 who have opted in to MMFLA), as well as it should have passed a regulatory ordinance that sets for the policies and also standards for those centers to operate within the city or township. The full standards can be found in 205, but if you do have any kind of concerns you need to contact your municipal authority. Or, conversely, get your legal representative to do this for you. As the application proceeds, BMMR will certainly get in touch with applicants, providing details on any kind of various other needs, including a pre-licensure inspection of your location or facility.
Accepted
Ultimately, you might get authorization for your license. After you are informed 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 each year, so it is difficult to predict precisely what it will be. Nonetheless, starting in 2019, regardless of which license you acquire, anticipate the assessment to be imposed and also for that assessment to be substantial.
Verdict.
We hope this helps you decide whether you are ready to apply for a Michigan commercial grow license. Remember, with a lawyer by your side, this process can be much simpler, and you will gain skilled suggestions on how to proceed properly to make sure that your application is accepted. Even after you get approval, legal advice is advised to guarantee you stay on top of adjustments to the law and regulations, and so that you can remain in compliance and also keep your business open.
Here at Fowler & Williams, PLC, we specialize in assisting clients get MMFLA licenses and also guaranteeing continuing compliance.
Should you decide to retain counsel to assist you on your licensing journey, give us a call.
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