The first medical cannabis clinics in Kansas City have opened for business.

The Green Clinics is the first medical cannabis clinic in the area to launch for business. Two licensed and board-certified doctors will be responsible for providing the necessary evaluation to determine a patient’s eligibility for medical cannabis inside the facility, which is board-certified.

The company’s chief executive officer (CEO) Emily Branch said that the clinic is “not a rubber stamp.”

“That’s not how it works. Not everyone who wants to use cannabis will qualify, and we’re sticklers for following the law and its spirit to the letter,” Branch explained, adding that, “hundreds of thousands of our friends and neighbors have a legitimate medical need, and our mission is to help them gain access to the medicine that can help them feel better.”

Approved patients will receive certification documentation from a physician at The Green Clinics, who will be able to prescribe the plant for a number of qualifying conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), epilepsy, terminal illness, migraine and cancer.

Medical cannabis cards can be prescribed at Missouri Cannabis Clinic

Another clinic that has recently opened in Kansas City is Missouri Cannabis Clinic. Each patient who visits this clinic in Raytown will receive a personalized and professional evaluation from a state-licensed medical cannabis doctor. Qualifying patients can also get a medical cannabis card from this clinic.

Unlike The Green Clinics – which boasts locations in Kansas City, St. Joseph, Butler, and Versailles, –Missouri Cannabis Clinic has just one location at 10001 E. 67th St. Raytown, Missouri 64133. The owner of this medical cannabis clinic, Darby Cook, said she isn’t worried about the competition.

“I think there are enough patients out there in Missouri to keep us really busy,” said Cook, “simply because their primary care physicians don’t feel comfortable writing the medication, or by contract, they can’t do it, or they’re misinformed about the drug and they won’t do it.”

Patients in Kansas have been able to sign up for medical cannabis cards since the State began accepting applications on July 4. Applicants can apply via the “Licensing & Regulations” section on the health.mo.gov website. Patients who qualify can grow a maximum of six plants for personal use. Cannabis business owners in Kansas will have to wait until August to apply for the necessary licenses required to cultivate, produce and sell medical cannabis products in a retail setting. The state predicts that more dispensaries will open their doors this August.

The medical cannabis market is starting to blossom in Kansas City

The Kansas City Council will be in charge of regulating medical cannabis dispensaries. Sometime in July, a regulation that would make it compulsory for medical cannabis business owners to operate from an establishment that sits at least 750 feet from churches, child daycare facilities and schools in order to sell their cannabis-containing pharmaceutical products is expected to be reviewed.

The requirement is just 300 feet for establishments that sell alcohol, suggesting that weed is more harmful than alcohol. However, nobody has ever died from a cannabis overdose; the same cannot be said for alcohol-related deaths. Based on the details of Missouri’s regulations for medical cannabis shops, special training will be provided to employees. The regulations also forbid business owners from practicing promotional efforts to sell medical cannabis, such as by providing passersby with free samples.

The existing law limits every district in Missouri to 24 dispensary licenses. In the fifth district, dispensary licenses have already been pre-applied for by 73 applicants. There are eight districts in total.