Secret marijuana records would be revealed under a plan that has been approved by the Missouri House.
This week the state House voted to pry open a trove of secret state records that detail the ownership structures of Missouri’s medical marijuana companies.
The state’s lawmakers approved the plan, as an amendment to an unrelated bill, on a bipartisan 128-6 vote. The House sent the underlying bill dealing with local governments back to the Senate for consideration.
According to amendment sponsor, Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, the Department of Health and Senior Services rebuffed efforts by the House Special Committee on Government Oversight to obtain the ownership records.
Merideth explained that this means lawmakers have no way of knowing whether business entities received more licenses than allowed under the 2018 constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana.
The constitutional amendment limits “entities under substantially common control” to five dispensary licenses, three cultivation licenses and three manufacturing licenses.
“We need statutory language to make it very explicit that they have to provide us that information,” Merideth stated.
Merideth said that as government officials, House lawmakers should be able to access the information as long as they’re not disseminating it to the public.
“We’re a separate branch of government that should — that is able to do our own investigation, as long as we’re not then releasing that information,” Merideth explained. “This is different than making an open record.”
“As a legislative body, we should be able to look into what our departments are doing and how they’re operating, especially when it comes to enforcing a constitutional change,” said Rep. Jered Taylor, R-Nixa.
The legislation is Senate Bill 724.
