Microbusinesses are marijuana facility licenses that are only issued to eligible entities and individuals and are designed to allow marginalized or underrepresented individuals to participate in the legal marijuana market.

Ahead of the application acceptance timeframe, microbusiness applicants should be aware of the following:

• An entity, which includes individuals, may apply for and obtain only one license to operate a marijuana microbusiness facility, which may be either a microbusiness dispensary facility or a microbusiness wholesale facility. This means an individual’s name must only appear in one application; appearing in more than one application is cause for denial of all applications in which that individual appears.

• A microbusiness applicant may not have an owner who is also an owner of an existing medical, comprehensive, or other microbusiness marijuana facility license or certification. This limitation ensures everyone who applies has an equal chance at obtaining a microbusiness facility license.

• Applicants for a microbusiness license shall be majority-owned and operated by individuals who each meet at least one (1) of the eligibility requirements. These requirements can be found on the department’s website.

• At least one (1) eligible individual who contributes to the majority ownership must complete pre-application training, as specified by the department.

• Microbusiness licenses are selected via random lottery drawing. To ensure the integrity of the applicant selection process, the Missouri Lottery will conduct the drawing without reference to applicants’ identities.

• All timely applications submitted with the application fee will be entered into the lottery drawing. Untimely applications, or those submitted without an application fee, will be denied and will not go to lottery.

• After the application submission window closes, qualifying applicants will be sorted by congressional district and license type (wholesale or dispensary) and then assigned a sequential applicant identifier within those groups. Each group will be considered its own lottery set, for a total of 16 lottery drawings. All applicants will receive an email notice prior to being sent to the lottery with their applicant identifier.

•  The lottery is scheduled to take place on Sept. 9, 2026. The lottery drawing results will be posted to the department’s website as soon as they are available. Results will be listed by congressional district.

• Through variance to the requirement in 19 CSR 100-1.060(3)(k), fingerprint submissions will not be required within two weeks of application submission. The department will instead require fingerprint submissions post-lottery from individuals subject to disqualifying felony offense analysis as needed for review of top-drawn applications.

Those needing assistance with eligibility requirements or application forms can contact Facility Application Services at CannabisFAS@health.mo.gov.

The department is committed to providing enhanced communications and educational opportunities ahead of the third round of microbusiness licenses. For information on microbusiness outreach events, applicant eligibility requirements and instructions on how to apply or subscribe to email updates, visit Cannabis.mo.gov.