One of two licensed Missouri businesses legally allowed to grow and dispense CBD is now open and has been serving patients for about two months.
BeLeaf is growing and dispensing a high-CBD strain of industrial hemp called Noah’s Releaf imported from California. It so far has about 20 customers from across the state that range in age from 8 months to 33 years, a local NBC affiliate reported. All suffer from severe epilepsy.
The dispensary is located in Earth City, a suburb of St. Louis. The second licensed CBD producer, the Noah’s Arc Foundation, hopes to be serving patients by the end of the summer.
Aside from Florida and Texas, Missouri is the only state in the nation that has passed a workable CBD program that parrots broader medical marijuana laws. It permits non-psychoactive CBD but strictly prohibits any level of THC that would get a consumer high. Numerous other conservative states have passed similar laws that are generally unworkable because they require a doctor’s prescription or some other provision that can’t be implemented.