The Missouri constitution provides for 192 medical marijuana dispensaries.

Each of the state's eight Congressional districts gets 24 dispensaries.

On Thursday morning, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services began notifying more than 1,100 applicants for coveted medical marijuana dispensary licenses as to whether they would be permitted to sell cannabis to patients inside highly secured retail facilities.

BREAKING FRIDAY, JAN. 24, 2020:Missouri issues complete list of licensed medical marijuana dispensaries

Department spokeswoman Lisa Cox told the News-Leader by text message that the full list of accepted and denied license applicants could be posted online as early as Friday.

Throughout the day, applicants learned the fate of their efforts to get into a Missouri marketplace that could one day be worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Given the numbers involved — 1,163 competitors vying for just 192 permits — most were destined for defeat.

A Springfield applicant, Desmond Morris, and his Wholesome Bud Company were turned down for their dispensary application, as they were with cultivation and manufacturing applications.

"We are shocked and disappointed to inform you our dispensary application has been conditionally denied," read a post Thursday afternoon on the brand's Facebook page. "Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we evaluate the next steps."

Morris told the News-Leader earlier this week that he planned to look into the state's administrative appeal process for licensing decisions.

Others waited out the day.

"Fingers crossed," said Jimmy Koch in a social media message early Thursday. He is tied to an application at the Outland Complex on downtown Springfield's South Avenue. "Seems like the bigger out of state connected (corporations) have been winning."

By 3 p.m., Koch learned his company's application was turned down.

"Yes denied," he told the News-Leader via social media message. He said he and his team would take a wait-and-see approach until they can examine dispensary application score rankings when they're released by state authorities.

By 4 p.m., Brian Smith with Queen City Wellness in northwest Springfield had also been denied a license.

"There’s no way that somebody else could have had a better application, unless they just had more money than we did," Smith told the News-Leader. "I hope it didn’t come down to money. But it looks pretty much like that’s what's happened."

Smith and his wife were hoping to put a dispensary at 2709 W. Kearney St. and hire veterans and offer discounts to the veteran community, he said.

Smith said his family also owns a vape shop, they're looking into buying a bar, and Smith drives a freight truck. They've put a lot of work and several hundred thousand dollars into their application, he said.

"I just don’t see how anybody could have had a better application than what we had," Smith said. "We went above and beyond on everything, but for some reason we did not get it."

"Yes sir," Smith said when asked if he planned to look into a lawsuit or an administrative appeal. He and his lawyer are going over their documents.

But around midday, the News-Leader confirmed a dispensary location in Springfield that was approved. The license went to Bloom Medicinals at 751 S. Glenstone Ave., according to company statements and health department location data.

Winners and losers in the Ozarks

More approvals followed.

Joseph "Chip" Sheppard, a Springfield-based attorney who helped draft Missouri's medical cannabis constitutional amendment, said that based on word from his clients, there are "at least six dispensaries that will be located in the Queen City."

Sheppard added, "This is great news for the Springfield patients, bad news for opioid pushers, drug dealers and cartels."

Specifics on the dispensary locations began to emerge over the course of Thursday afternoon as companies made announcements.

RJ Starr, an official with Bloom Medicinals, said that company was awarded four licenses, pertaining to locations in Springfield, Cape Girardeau, O'Fallon and Plattsburg.

Starr called the application process "rigorous and well thought" and said the company was "honored."

Kim Andrews with OzaRX Botanicals said that company was approved for a license tied to a dispensary to be located at 3800 W. Sunshine St.

She said company officials were "excited."

"There are so many in the community that may benefit from medical cannabis," Andrews said in an email. "Our goal is to open a dispensary that will serve our customers in an environment that makes them feel comfortable and provides them with the knowledge they need to make decisions regarding their health."

Republic will get a dispensary, said Alex Paulson with Easy Mountain. The store is to be located off West Farm Road 174, according to Missouri health department data. Their license was approved with a 10:30 a.m. email, Paulson said.

The Springfield Business Journal reported that former NFL player Grant Wistrom's company, Revival 98 LLC, won a dispensary license.

Others around the Ozarks had adverse news.

Sarcoxie Nursery, east of Joplin, said it was denied for dispensary, along with previous denials for its cultivation and manufacturing applications.

Sarcoxie co-owner Paul Callicoat, a retired cardiologist, said in a news release that his family applied for one dispensary in Joplin, one in Monett, and two others in Kanasas City.

“We are disappointed that all four of our dispensary applications were denied," Callicoat said in a news release. "This remains consistent with the flawed scoring process that has been brought into question by us and others. We remain committed to ensuring there is safe and effective access to medical marijuana for eligible patients across our state. We are grateful for the continued outpouring of support as we move forward with our pending litigation.”

In December, the Callicoats sued the Missouri health department.

An owner of another company, Robin Mier, applied for a dispensary license for her R&R Medical, LLC outfit on State Road DD near Buffalo.

Her application was denied, she told the News-Leader Thursday morning.

"I feel it's rigged, because I even had a consultant," Mier said, referring to a person she hired to aid in completing the application materials. "I figured that would be more than enough."

She added, "They're doing big business. They're overlooking mom-and-pops. And I'm a mom-and-pop."

Mier said she already sells CBD and hemp products through her building, which required an investment that totaled less than $20,000. "I'm getting out real easy because I own my building," Mier said.

She said she believes recreational marijuana reform will take place in the future, and that she'll participate in the surging legal cannabis market at that time.

"I'll keep plucking away," Mier said.

At least one other whose dispensary application was denied said he planned to keep doing business in CBD, or cannabidiol, products. Federally legal CBD items have much less THC than products labeled with terms like "marijuana" or "cannabis."

Andrew Ingrande with Mission 22 Medical in Bowling Green, a community of 5,600 south of Hannibal in northeastern Missouri, told the News-Leader he'd keep selling CBD as well as glass and vape items.

Ingrande said he'd gone after a dispensary license because he's a veteran. He said he feels "proud to serve" and that his military service was the reason he started his company.

The Springfield Business Journal reported that Canna Bliss, a Springfield company, was turned down for multiple applications.

PAST COVERAGE:Who wants to own a dispensary in Springfield?

The Springfield area saw 98 applications for various types of medical marijuana state business licenses, the News-Leader reported in September. Most of those were applications to own and operate a dispensary, while others were for cultivation, manufacturing or testing lab licenses.

Nobody in Springfield won a cultivation license when those were announced in late 2019, though two Springfield applicants won manufacturing licenses. In total, there are roughly 2,200 applicants throughout the state; more than half are for dispensary licenses. There are just 348 licenses available.

More:Everything you need to know about medical marijuana in Missouri

Licensing nears the finish line

Jack Cardetti, spokesman for the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association, or MoCannTrade, was among those with early reactions to the news.

"It's great to see DHSS continuing to implement Missouri's medical marijuana program as expediently as possible," he told the News-Leader in a text message. "The sooner licenses go out, the sooner Missouri's 30,000 patients have access to safe, secure medicine."

The announcement came a day earlier than expected. The health department previously stated it would let the applicants know whether they got the greenlight "approximately" Jan. 24.

“Today’s milestone represents over a year of effort by many people to put the final piece in place so that appropriately screened patients in Missouri can receive medical marijuana,” said Randall Williams, DHSS director, in a news release. “We thank all who have helped us to date, and we will continue to listen so that we can best serve the people of our state.”

The story continues below.

Missouri Article 14, the formal name of the medical marijuana constitutional amendment voters passed in Nov. 2018, allows for 192 dispensaries. Each of Missouri's Congressional districts gets 24 of them.

Springfield, Joplin and Branson are located in the 7th District.

The potential effect of legal medical cannabis on Springfield's economy is not yet clear.

"We haven’t done any research to determine the potential economic impact," said Springfield planning and development director Mary Lilly Smith in an email. "Congratulations to the successful applicants in Springfield. We look forward to working with them as they move through the permitting process."

But the cannabis patient base is growing. Missouri has been issuing qualifying patient ID cards to residents since late June, with roughly 1,000 patients being approved each week.

It's expected that those patients will be able to buy cannabis at the dispensaries sometime in late spring or early summer, once the retail shops pass commencement inspections and have time to receive Missouri-grown weed from 60 licensed commercial cultivators.

As in many previous medical cannabis states, the Missouri licensing process has been controversial, with a number of applicants complaining about what they see as application scoring irregularities.

Some have filed lawsuits and administrative appeals.

Is recreational weed on the horizon?

Missouri's medical marijuana constitutional amendment took effect a month after voters approved it in the Nov. 2018 general election.

But since July, at least four recreational marijuana reform petitions have been approved for circulation by the Missouri Secretary of State's office, according to online records.

That means Missouri backers of recreational, or adult-use, cannabis would need to gather roughly 160,000 signatures by May to get on the November 2020 ballot.

On Tuesday, KOLR quoted comments by Gov. Mike Parson when he was asked about recreational cannabis last week.

“I’m sure there is going to be discussion on that in the future," Parson was quoted as saying. "Right now, I think we have all we can worry about with medical marijuana, trying to figure out how we’re going to implement that."

Gregory Holman is the investigative reporter for the News-Leader. Email news tips to gholman@gannett.com and consider supporting vital local journalism by subscribing. Learn more by visiting News-Leader.com/subscribe.