“Some licensees believed they were allowed to bring in clones or tissue cultures and seeds on an ongoing basis.”

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent

At least seven Missouri marijuana growers have been fined in the past year for violating what’s known in the industry as the “immaculate origination rule.”

Marijuana cannot cross state lines because it is still illegal, and state law dictates that all marijuana must be grown within the state.

However, a year passes when a licensee passes an initial inspection when the state essentially turns a blind eye and puts its hands over its ears to how a cultivation facility begins its inventory.

It’s called the clean conception rule, and last year six facilities were fined $500,000 for breaking it.

A spokeswoman for Missouri’s Division of Cannabis Regulation said regulators “found that some licensees believed they were permitted to bring in clones or tissue cultures as well as seeds on an ongoing basis. However, this practice violates the seed sales tracking regulations.”

To keep up with customer preferences and demand, these companies brought in clones or starter plants and tissue cultures, a form of in vitro propagation, of popular plant varieties from other states.

“In lieu of penalties or other enforcement actions, these violations were settled for amounts ranging from $50,000 to $500,000, depending on the situation,” said Lisa Cox, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Aging Services, which oversees the cannabis regulatory division.

Licensees who have seen the largest fines are major players in other states, including the companies behind Good Day Farm and High Profile.

The combined fee for the four cultivation licenses representing Good Day Farm and Codes, shared management, was $347,495. Facilities are located in Columbia, Carrollton and Chaffee.

For High Profile, it was $500,000 at its O’Fallon cultivation facility.

Two smaller growers also saw fines of $20,000 and $50,000.

None of the licensees fined by the state returned The Independent’s request for comment.

‘mother plant’

Missouri cultivation facilities are approved to grow marijuana plants, and the harvest is sent to a manufacturing facility, which is then made into pre-rolls, edibles and other products.

Often, growers will develop a “mother plant” to collect clones or cuttings from the plant and put them in their pots. These are genetically identical to the plant from which they are cut.

But where does the mother plant come from?

In the first year of a facility, “the rules and the law are silent on how that happens,” Cox said.

After that, facilities can apply to the state for permission to bring in seeds for “continuing inventory needs,” or they can obtain clones from other licensed growers located in Missouri.

But the state fined several licensees last year for not following those rules, sending a clear message to all Missouri businesses that they must grow plants from seed or get starter plants from competitors.

Ryan Schepers, St. Louis Community College’s cannabis program professor, said that as a “plant nerd,” he doesn’t think starting from seed is necessarily difficult or a bad thing for industry innovation.

“I think a lot of cultivation centers are set up to take care of plants that are already established, and that would be a bit of a challenge,” he said.

But there’s nothing that “well-versed” plant growers working at the cultivation centers can’t handle, he said. He said the main challenge is the delay in production. It will take about a month to six weeks for a cannabis plant to start getting well established, he said, but they will be “pretty hardy plants.”

“Clones are obviously much easier to deal with,” he said.

But tissue cultures involve a small number of cells to begin with, he said, and that process can take as long as seeds to germinate.

He understands that it is difficult for companies to align the growing season of plants with the need to keep up with trends in other states. If a product sells very well in California, he said, “of course we’ll try to get the same thing in Missouri.”

However, he said the cultivation center can discourage him from trying new things. For the sake of his students, he hopes the emphasis will shift to growth and innovation.

“We at St Louis Community College really emphasize that our students are plant scientists who focus on cannabis,” he said.

Innovation can be difficult when federal and state laws are changing rapidly, he added.

The Independent asked if the state would consider allowing licensees to obtain clones in the future to continue popular varieties.

“The department was looking at the DEA’s guidelines that state that clones are not considered marijuana under federal law because of the low concentrations of Delta 9 (THC),” Cox said.

However, recent changes in federal law “may change the status of seeds and clones,” he said. He was referring to the hemp restrictions that were passed as part of the federal spending package last year and will go into effect in November.

“So the department will have to follow federal guidance,” Cox said, “and interpret how it develops over the next year before making any changes to rules or processes.”

This story was first published by the Missouri Independent.

Photo by Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.