JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) is granting the public the opportunity to provide feedback on drafts of application questions and scoring criteria that will determine which applicants will soon become licensed medical marijuana facilities throughout the state.
Scoring criteria and application questions will make up part of the facility license application which will be available on June 4. The Department will accept completed application forms beginning August 3.
“It has remained important to us that we allow the public to weigh in on each phase of this program’s development,” said Lyndall Fraker, Director of DHSS’s Section for Medical Marijuana Regulation. “It is our job to implement this medical program for the patients of Missouri, and to do that successfully, we need to listen to all feedback.”
DHSS established ten advisory committees –one for each of the application scoring criteria established by the Missouri Constitution—to review the drafted application scoring questions. Members were selected by the Department with consultation of members of the Governor’s cabinet, based on the member’s expertise or background in the subject matter under the purview of the committee.
Public feedback regarding the drafted questions can be provided through the online suggestion form until a few days prior to each committee meeting. The deadlines for submitting public comment and schedule of committee meetings are below. DHSS will make revisions based on public comments and provide public comments and revised questions to advisory committee members. Each advisory committee will then meet and discuss the draft questions, suggest modifications and make a recommendation to DHSS. Further, based on the committee’s recommended questions, the committee will recommend weights for each question within the committee’s purview. Public comment will not be allowed during committee meetings. DHSS will review the recommendations and finalize the questions and weights, which will be incorporated into the final rules that are due on June 4, per Article XIV of the Constitution.
Topic and individual question weights will be released following the conclusion of the advisory committee process. Feedback can be submitted using the online suggestion form.
Draft Facility License Application Questions.
Draft Evaluation Criteria Scoring Table.
Alisha Shurr was a reporter for The Missouri Times and The Missouri Times Magazine. She joined The Missouri Times in January 2018 after working as a copy editor for her hometown newspaper in Southern Oregon. Alisha is a graduate of Kansas State University.
