Applicants look to open medical-marijuana businesses in Cape Girardeau, surrounding area

Five medical-marijuana dispensaries have been proposed for Cape Girardeau while Jackson may have a cultivation facility and Perryville, Missouri, could land two cultivation businesses and a manufacturing facility, according to pre-applications filed with the state.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services made available information on 554 pre-applications filed statewide as of last week. The state will start accepting formal applications on Aug. 3.

Applicants to operate dispensaries in Cape Girardeau include:

• Noah's Arc of Missouri, based in Chesterfield
• Green Med of Perryville
• Edward Baker of Ellsinore
• Sara Gunther-Jackson of Cape Girardeau
• Nirvana Bliss IV LLC, of Fenton (no relation to the writer of this report)

Applicant for a cultivation facility in Jackson:

• Noah's Arc of Missouri

Applicants for cultivation and manufacturing facilities in Perryville:

• Natures Med MO LLC of Sunset Hills (cultivation and manufacturing)
• MoCannaHealth LLC of St. Charles (cultivation)

Most of the applicants also have filed paperwork for other medical-marijuana facilities in other locations around the state.

Sara Gunther-Jackson said she wants to open a dispensary. Her pre-application proposes Cape Girardeau, where she has lived for the past 15 years, as a possible location. But she said Wednesday she may instead seek out a location in Madison County or Iron County.

The Southeast Missourian left email and phone messages with all of the applicants. Only three could be reached for comment.

A MoCannaHealth spokesman, who declined to be named, said the company owns a greenhouse in Perryville that could be used to grow marijuana and has existing medical-marijuana enterprises in Oklahoma and Colorado.

Looking statewide

Jeffrey Aboussie, director of governmental affairs for Noah's Arc, said Wednesday that his company applied for 11 licenses across the state: five for dispensaries, three for cultivation facilities and three to manufacture marijuana-infused products.

"If you look at our pre-applications, we have kind of covered the five major areas of the state of Missouri," he said.

Noah's Arc wants to operate medical-marijuana businesses in the Cape Girardeau, Springfield, Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis areas.

Aboussie said the firm is now looking at possible sites. "Some may be a build out, some may be a ground up, some may be finding the right storefront/retail location that fits the need," he said.

Aboussie said his company submitted pre-applications before many cities began writing ordinances to regulate the new industry.

"We do know there are some municipalities that are pushing back on dispensaries, and we may choose to go to another neighboring municipality if we find out that people are just adamantly opposed," he said.

"Like any good business that decides to come to a locality, you have to be good partners with your city leaders. You have to prove that you run a new type of industry properly,"

Aboussie said his company already has experience dealing with state licensing. A companion company, Noah's Arc Foundation, is one of two entities that has been licensed to grow hemp for CBD oil. It has been doing this for the last three years, he said.

The business has experience with meeting state licensing regulations and complying with multiple state inspections, he said.

Noah's Arc of Missouri plans to have "some well known law enforcement people on our board," said Aboussie.

"We think their credentials will carry a comfort level with other law enforcement around the state," he added.

"Again, that is going to be a big selling point" Aboussie said. "I know everyone is going to want to make sure that everyone is compliant with the law," he said.

Aboussie said the state is looking to issue licenses in December.

If licensed, Aboussie said his company could be cultivating, processing and selling "product" by spring.

A question of site

Gunther-Jackson said she has investors and hopes to open a dispensary by next summer.

She said she is shying away from a Cape Girardeau location because "there are a lot of people with a lot of money that are looking at the Cape Girardeau area."

Gunther-Jackson, who has 15 years of retail experience and inventory management, said she is looking at opening a dispensary on "a little smaller scale."

Originally from Colorado, Gunther-Jackson said she has seen the growth of the marijuana industry there.

"It seems like a good investment," she said.

She said Cape Girardeau offers a "good, potential" market for medical-marijuana businesses.

Gunther-Jackson said the state had done a "really good rollout" of the medical-marijuana program.

"It is highly regulated, which is great," she said.

The city of Cape Girardeau's new zoning regulations for medical-marijuana facilities also are "really reasonable," she said.

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