Businesses are already preparing for legalized recreational marijuana in Missouri

GRANDVIEW, Mo. — Medical marijuana dispensaries in Missouri are already planning on people voting Yes on Amendment 3.

“If they carry it into Kansas, and then they get caught, you’re trafficking drugs across state line,” ReLeaf Resources Dispensary General Manager Josh Ordo said in an interview on Friday.

Ordo says you should not be carrying drugs into Kansas, but he knows his business will cash in if recreational marijuana’s legalized in the state.

“I think they’re going to triple at minimum,” Ordo said when asked if his business would double or triple if Amendment 3 passes soon.

There are “Vote Yes” signs on the street outside of ReLeaf Resources Dispensary. There are also “Vote Yes” signs inside the store. The business already has an expansion space right next door to their current shop, but they were planning to expand no matter what happens with recreational marijuana. Due to Missouri law, they only sell medicinal marijuana right now.

“But theoretically speaking, I’d say yeah, about 70% of it is because we need to prepare for what could come,” Ordo said of their expansion plans. “We’d be stupid if we didn’t.”

According to the secretary of state’s website, a yes vote would allow people to use marijuana if they’re 21 or older. It would also allow for people with non-violent marijuana offenses to have their records be automatically expunged. Prosecuting Attorneys like Platte County’s Eric Zahnd will be voting no though.

“In California, the Los Angeles Times just recently published a series of stories that documented more murders, more robberies, extortion, illegal grows, human trafficking, more drug cartels, an expanded black market,” Zahnd said. “All of the bad things that you can think might happen if we legalize marijuana… have happened in California.”

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is the group tasked with starting up recreational marijuana if it passes. A spokeswoman told us earlier this week the earliest you’d be able to buy recreational marijuana is February.