What Missouri's recreational marijuana amendment could mean for Boone County
Four years ago, Missourians voted to approve the medical use of marijuana by qualified patients.
Voters around the Show-Me State will return to the polls Nov. 8 to vote on Amendment 3, which could see Missouri join the growing number of states allowing recreational use of marijuana for those 21 and older, so long as they are in possession of less than 3 ounces without consequence.
The 39-page constitutional amendment would:
Remove state prohibitions on purchasing, possessing, consuming, using, delivering, manufacturing and selling marijuana for personal use for adults over the age of 21;
Require a registration card for personal cultivation with prescribed limits;
Allow those with certain marijuana-related non-violent offenses to petition for release from incarceration or parole and probation, and have records cleared;
Establish a lottery selection process to award licenses and certificates;
Issue equally distributed licenses to each congressional district; and
Impose a 6% tax on the retail price of marijuana to benefit various programs.
Immediate impacts in Boone County would include fewer marijuana-related arrests, said Columbia attorney Dan Viets, state coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. Viets is chair of the state advisory board for the Amendment 3 campaign and has defended marijuana court cases for more than 30 years.
John Payne, Legal Missouri 2022 campaign manager, said the amendment has three goals: to legalize adult use of marijuana, expunge people's records automatically and generate millions of dollars in new revenue for the state.
More: Missouri recreational marijuana advocates weigh pros, cons of Amendment 3
Expunging records of non-violent, marijuana-related offenses
Viets and Payne support the automatic expungement of non-violent, marijuana-related offenses.
Non-violent offenses include things like drug possession, gambling or disturbing the peace, according to the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission. Violent crimes are those that include bodily harm to oneself or others, like murder, domestic assault, some types of robbery and armed criminal acts.
Under Amendment 3, certain non-violent, marijuana-related offenses in Missouri would be expunged from people's records.
These expungements would "not require any action by defendants and it won't require any lawyers," Viets wrote.
However, there is a process for the release of those incarcerated, which is outlined in the amendment. Payne said there are two parts of the process for those who are incarcerated with marijuana-related offenses. First, there's expungement, which is the clearing of records, and then there's release.
"The more serious the offense, generally speaking, the later in the queue it is," Payne said.
For example, within 90 days of the amendment taking effect, sentencing courts would complete adjudication for all cases involving only misdemeanor marijuana offenses. Within 180 days, sentencing courts would address all cases involving class E felony offenses. And within 270 days, sentencing courts would address all cases involving class D felony cases involving 3 pounds or less of marijuana.
Christy Blakemore, Boone County Circuit Court clerk, wrote in an email this week to the Tribune that she still awaits guidance from the Office of State Courts Administrator.
"As I understand it, there are some expungements that will be automatic and some that they will have to petition the court," Blakemore wrote, adding, "This is in the very early stages, but I do know that OSCA has been discussing this and having meetings, so we are waiting to hear from them to get guidance."
She was not yet able to answer questions related to administrative and financial impacts to the Boone County Circuit Court to process record expungements.
More: Here's what campaigning looks like for and against recreational marijuana in Missouri
Expungements are not necessarily a path out of incarceration, Columbia-based advocacy organization Race Matters, Friends wrote in a statement to the Tribune.
"While Race Matters, Friends recognizes Amendment 3 provides people jailed for marijuana possession the ability to expunge their records, it does not offer them prison release for the same offenses," wrote Aída R. Guhlincozzi with RMF. "Our bail fund is a key component of our work, and so we support legislative steps that not only decriminalize marijuana possession and use, but also guarantees prison release and automatic record expungement of people previously sentenced and imprisoned for those offenses.
"We also take issue with the amendment’s limitations on an open cannabis market for participation of everyone with no barriers to entry for legal sale."
Vague amendment language
Most opposition to the amendment is due to what is in the full amendment language.
Those in possession of between 3 and 6 ounces of marijuana still could face misdemeanor charges and their associated fines of up to $1,000 on the third offense.
"This is not really legalization, in the the sense that they created a constitutional possession limit and created a constitutional misdemeanor charge if you go over 3 ounces of marijuana," said Eapen Thampy, registered cannabis lobbyist who works with Crossing Paths PAC, a pro-drug use and criminal justice reform organization.
Thampy pleaded guilty in 2020 to a federal charge of intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms of marijuana.
The amendment language also concerns both the Missouri Catholic Conference of Bishops and Pro-Choice Missouri, though with different focus points.
The conference of bishops is concerned there are no limitations on how generated tax revenue is used for medical research.
"The significant funding stream created by this initiative would not be subject to legislative appropriation or review and could be used for research involving the destruction and use of embryonic stem cells or aborted fetal remains. This we must oppose," the conference wrote in a statement this month.
Pro-Choice Missouri is opposed due to the language introducing "a dangerous 'undue burden' standard, the same statutory language that Missouri politicians have relied on for years to discriminate against abortion providers," the organization said in a statement.
"Pro-Choice Missouri supports legalization and decriminalization of cannabis, but has sincere concerns about whether Amendment 3 will accomplish these goals," the statement read.
Marijuana monopolies
The Save Our State PAC, one of the main organizations in opposition to Amendment 3, contends that the measure is "backed by marijuana monopoly insiders" and "for insiders."
Viets pushed back against this notion.
"There is no monopoly in any realistic meaning of that term. There are more than 100 distinct and separate license-holders in the state of Missouri. There is no monopoly or evidence of corruption," Viets said.
Thampy and Timothy Gilio, founder of the Missouri Marijuana Legalization Movement, share the worry that Amendment 3 would create a monopoly within the state's marijuana industry. There is specific concern around the establishment of microbusinesses.
There are two types of marijuana microbusiness facilities outlined in the amendment: a microbusiness dispensary facility and microbusiness wholesale facility. Wholesale facilities work internally and may cultivate, process, manufacture, transport and sell marijuana products to any other microbusiness facility. Dispensary facilities work both internally and with the public and may process, package, deliver and sell marijuana products to other microbusiness facilities or directly to patients and consumers.
An applicant for a marijuana microbusiness license must meet at least one of the following qualifications:
Have a net worth of less than $250,000 and have an income below 250% of the federal poverty level; or
Have a valid service-connected disability card issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; or
Be a person who has been or a person whose parent/guardian/spouse has been arrested, prosecuted or convicted for a non-violent marijuana offense; or
Reside in a ZIP code where 30% or more of the population lives below federal poverty level, the rate of unemployment is 50% or higher than the state average, or the historic rate of incarceration for marijuana-related offenses is 50% higher than the rate for the entire state; or
Have graduated from a school district that was unaccredited.
"(With a microbusiness license), you can only grow 250 plants, you can only do business with other (microbusinesses) and you can't do business with the existing marijuana industry," Gilio said. "It's like you can't allow the minorities across the street to play with the big boys on the other side of the street who are rich."
Save Our State calls the lottery for microbusiness licenses unfair, whereas Viets celebrates the proposed system.
Micro-licensing probably would take six months to a year to get in place, Viets said. There is the potential for more regular licensing by the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services, depending on the growth of the customer base, if the amendment passes, Viets said.
"We have seven licensed medical facilities in Columbia. Assuming all of them apply for adult-use licenses, then we’ll have seven adult-use facilities. So that is not going to change dramatically," Viets said about already established facilities and licensure conversion, a part of the amendment.
More: Recreational marijuana advocate, dispensary manager prepare for November vote in Missouri
At least one of Columbia's dispensaries has out-of-state investors, backed in part by real estate and mortgage brokerages.
The industry will remain competitive, Viets said.
"People who claim there is (a monopoly) either don’t know the meaning or, God forbid, they might be lying," he said.
Greta Cross of the Springfield News-Leader contributed to this report.
Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Missouri's Amendment 3 could impact Boone County
