A medical research institute might open in Missouri if an initiative petition to legalize medical marijuana passes. Democratic Lt. Gov. candidate Brad Bradshaw founded GoMissouri, the organization pushing the petition.
Filed to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office Oct. 19, the petition proposes an amendment to the Missouri Constitution in an effort to legalize medical cannabis. If the petition is approved, it will be on the November 2016 ballot among other [initiative petitions](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2015/9/23/initiative-petition-hopes-legalize-medical-marijua/) hoping to also legalize the use of medical marijuana.
The petition allows for two medical marijuana dispensaries for every 20,000 inhabitants in each county, or a city outside a county. Tax revenue generated from the sale of medical marijuana would fund the creation of a research institute in Missouri that would begin at two square miles with the possibility of eventually increasing to 36 square miles.
With a 75 percent sales tax on medical marijuana, the petition is estimated to generate between $45.4 million and $58.7 million in tax revenue in the first year of full operations, according to a study by consulting firm Tripp Umbach commissioned by GoMissouri.
The purpose of the research facility is “to find and develop cures and treatments for cancer and other incurable and chronic diseases or medical conditions,” according to the amendment.
Missouri will retain a percentage of the intellectual property rights of any cures, treatments and drugs discovered at the research facility. This will generate an estimated $1.4 billion of economic activity through its construction and would create or sustain 6,672 jobs during this period and generate $30 million in state and local taxes, according to Tripp Umbach’s study.
“Once you get the research becoming successful and you find cures, the amount of money that will generate compared to the revenue, it’s like comparing a lightning bug to a lightning bolt,” Bradshaw said. “The amount of money generated from medical marijuana, while it will be in the tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars economic impact wise, it’s not the literally billions of dollars that can be generated from the cures and drugs and things like that found.”
Bradshaw said he hopes this research facility will ultimately make Missouri a leader in the nation for healthcare and medical research as well as finding cures for incurable diseases.
“Missouri literally has the opportunity, if Missouri wants to, to have the best medical research institute in the world,” Bradshaw said.
In addition to the construction of a medical research institute, the money generated from the work conducted there would also go back to the residents of Missouri.
“We would like to see Missouri eventually become a state where you don’t pay income tax,” Bradshaw said. “That would be a huge revenue generator for the state of Missouri.”
While funding for research can begin as soon as the amendment is passed, there is no clear timeline for when the research institute would be completed. Bradshaw said it could be several years before the project is finished. After that, he said he would hope to see cures start to be found within 10 years.
“If you look at the actual development, it’s going to be an ongoing process,” Bradshaw said. “The old saying, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day,’ (well) the largest and best medical research institute in the world is not going to be built in a year or two years.”
If the initiative passes, Missouri would become the 24th state to legalize the use of medical cannabis.
Bradshaw made it clear that this petition’s goal is not to eventually legalize recreational use of marijuana. While it may not be Bradshaw’s goal, that is the goal of organizations like Show-Me Cannabis, who also filed an initiative petition for the legalization of medical cannabis in Missouri.
Both groups have medical marijuana initiative petitions and had discussed the possibility of working together early on. However, Marcus Leach, partner of Leach Public Solutions LC, who is working with Bradshaw on the petition, said various statutes in their petition, including the cultivation of personal cannabis in one’s home and allowing convicted felons to operate dispensaries, didn’t align with their goals.
“You add home-grow, and then people get this idea that their neighbor is growing marijuana in their basement, and it doesn’t fly so well across Missouri,” Leach said. “There’s not a poll in this country that would say their bill could pass in Missouri.”
Dan Viets, Show-Me Cannabis board of directors chairman, said Bradshaw and Show-Me Cannabis have the same goal. He considers Bradshaw both an ally and a friend they hope to work with in the future. The tax in Bradshaw’s bill was the main difference between the two groups, Viets said.
“(The tax is) going to make (marijuana) incredibly expensive, and we just don’t think it’s going to work, because people won’t buy marijuana that costs $800 an ounce,” Viets said. “They’re going to go on buying it in the black market.”
Show-Me Cannabis’ bill has a six percent tax of the retail price, 69 percent lower than the tax proposed in Bradshaw’s bill.
A recent [Gallup poll](http://www.gallup.com/poll/186260/back-legal-marijuana.aspx) shows that support for legalizing medical cannabis is at an all-time high, with 58 percent of Americans in favor of the legal use of marijuana. Younger people between the ages of 18 and 34 showed the greatest support, with seven in 10 of today’s young adults supporting legalization.
These initiative petitions will reveal whether Missouri is part of that majority.
