If you've been following recent coverage of Missouri House Bill 2704, you've probably heard that "Weed Baron" Josh Mitchem (Green Four Ventures/Clovr) & lobbyist Tom "Clown Car" Robbins (of MOCannTrade) are trying to twist lawmakers' arms to force license caps on the recreational marijuana industry created under HB 2704 (the Cannabis Freedom Act). Mitchem & Robbins claim that only the existing regulatory system for Missouri's medical marijuana is capable of stemming out of state diversion of marijuana and other acts of malfeasance.
But as Mitchem himself knows, this is a lie. Mitchem is party to one of two lawsuits filed recently claiming that medical marijuana cultivation licensees have imported marijuana from out of state and apparently entered it into the seed-to-sale METRC tracking system that is supposed to prevent illicit diversion:
If one medical marijuana program licensee has been found to be illicitly engaging in interstate commerce, it stands to reason that there are likely others. Incidentally, Archimedes principal Dr. Blonnie Dudney MD is still listed as a member of MOCannTrade committees.
We now know that the Constitutional regulations governing Missouri's medical marijuana program have failed and have created such significant pressure to cashflow that operators have actually broken both state and federal law to turn a profit.
Representative Hicks, however, when writing House Bill 2704, consulted with Oklahoma State Representative Scott Fetgatter to ensure that Missouri had the best regulatory system possible.