By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent
Missouri's Division of Cannabis Regulation has filed proposed rules with the secretary of state to establish marijuana research licenses, which would be issued without a cap on total numbers.
The rules define what research licensees may do and set out application requirements. They will appear in the May 1 issue of the Missouri Register on the Secretary of State's website, with a public comment period running through May 31.
Missouri voters approved recreational marijuana in 2022 via a constitutional amendment authorizing the state to issue licenses to "facilitate scientific research or education." The Division of Cannabis Regulation — housed within the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services — first published draft rules in August for informal public comment. After the May round, the division plans to file a final version for formal rulemaking this summer; legislative review and final publication are expected to take roughly eight more months.
Division director Amy Moore said the open-ended constitutional language invites a wide range of proposals. "We're all very interested in any research on cannabis and safety or its impact on the human body," Moore said. "Certainly as a public health agency, we're interested in health research, but it's not limited to that. So it'll be interesting to see what people want to propose once we get this established."
Policy director Rieka Yu flagged cultivation research as another area of interest, noting that New York's 2023 marijuana research rules have generated studies on protecting plants from viruses and the effects of different light conditions on plant growth.
A national study found that 17 of 38 states with medical or adult-use marijuana laws have enacted legislation outlining a cannabis research funding mechanism; Missouri is not among them. Of those 17, only 12 have actually allocated funding.
Without dedicated funding, the division decided against restricting or prioritizing research subject matter, citing limited participation rates elsewhere. "Letting people decide right now seems advisable, since we're just not seeing a lot of uptake in other states," Moore said. "There's just a lot of challenges still to getting this done."