With just eight patients who are certified across the state to obtain oil extracted from marijuana to treat severe epilepsy, frustrating growers and supporters who are working to put a 2014 law into operation.
State lawmakers required only 33 days to pass the bill, backed by state Rep. Caleb Jones, R-Columbia, legalizing oil containing cannabidiol, or CBD, to treat intractable epilepsy.
When two licenses to cultivate industrial hemp, extract the oil and establish retail locations to sell it were issued in February, growers projected they would be ready by September.
The patients registered to e able to obtain CBD include six minors under 18 and two adults, in reference from figures supplied by the Department of Health and Senior Services.
The growers stated they now hope to make CBD extracts available to patients by the end of January, however the minimal amount of patients caused one to switch production plans and both to wonder if they can recoup their investment.
Other concerns have added to the hold ups, stated Mitch Meyers of BeLEAF Corp. Banks will not work with the business because marijuana is identified as a Schedule 1 drug, a drug with no medical use and a high potential for abuse, she stated. That has made financial backing very difficult and forced her to pay for everything in cash.
BeLEAF initially has intentions to purchase property in St. Charles County to develop a greenhouse and processing compounds, she stated. Rather, her company will lease a building in Earth City in St. Louis County where cultivating, processing and retail can take place under the same roof.
“We stepped back from it a little bit and decided this was going to be a much smaller program,” Meyers said. “We wanted to get the medicine grown and processed and packaged as cheaply as we can.”
Each grower has the intentions to establish three retail outlets. Meyers stated she will look for locations in Kansas City for the second and Springfield or Columbia for the third.
Jason Strotheide, the founder of the Noah’s Arc Foundation, stated he, too, is looking for locations in Kansas City and Springfield in addition to a St. Louis County facility.
Under the program outlined by lawmakers, neurologists certify that their patients have tried three various anti-seizure medications without success and recommend that they are given permission to buy the oil. The Epilepsy Foundation of Missouri and Kansas is working to inform doctors about the program, stated Darla Templeton, CEO of the organization.
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