Austin Miller/The Daily Express
After years of legislative debate and battles, medical marijuana made its way to Missouri this year. With that came three dispensaries in Kirksville.
In January of 2020, Four companies have been granted permits to open medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. The pandemic has delayed many of those operations, delaying plans for several months.
COVID cases among construction workers delayed the establishment of the business, and then there were similar delays as vendors started to grow. As demand increased over supply, companies had to wait to get products on their shelves.
Such was the case for Missouri Health & Wellness, located at 215 East Charles Street, Which became the first dispensary in Kirksville on the first of March. The search for cities away from the metro is what drew them to Kirksville, said Kathleen Bibb, the company’s regional director. The company also opened stores in Washington, Sedalia and Jefferson City.
Many of the first customers in each store were old people trying to deal with various ailments and pain.
“This is the most rewarding part of the job,” Beebe said. “I’ve heard some very hard stories about the illnesses people deal with. Maybe they’ve tried regular medications and it didn’t work for them, or they’re trying something else to see if they can get relief from what they’re dealing with.”
The next Heya Wellness opening took place, which took place in August. It is located downtown at 120 South Main Street.
And Bloc recently opened on Baltimore Avenue, right in front of Hy-Vee. Bloc comes from Illinois-based Justice Grown. It has licenses in Missouri, Utah, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
It was the fourth approved dispensary for Agri-Genesis, operated by Richard Gunnels of Macon County. To date, the company has opened dispensaries called “Sunrise” in Macon, St. Louis, Kansas City, Merville and Clinton.
The Missouri Department of Health and Services said Dec. 21 that sales of medical marijuana in the state have exceeded $200 million. More than 158,000 patients are active in the state’s medical marijuana program.
