Industry panel revisits medical marijuana’s future in Missouri cannabis market

As Missouri’s cannabis industry continues to mature under adult use legalization, a growing chorus of stakeholders is calling for renewed attention to the medical roots that established the state’s marijuana market.

As the market has evolved, both nationally and in Missouri, medical marijuana has seemingly taken a backseat to adult use and the idea of recreational consumption. But with that change, many patients and some operators feel like their experiences have been devalued or overlooked. Now, many Missouri industry leaders and the state’s trade association aim to change that perception and refocus on the medical and health benefits of cannabis.

At MoCann Trade’s recent panel, “Bringing Back the Medical in Marijuana,” industry leaders and healthcare professionals gathered to explore the challenges and opportunities in serving wellness-focused and medicinal consumers. Moderated by Mitch Meyers, Partner at BeLeaf Medical and Swade Cannabis, the event emphasized how education, product development, and community outreach could help restore balance between medical and adult use sales.

“I started the Missouri cannabis market in 2015 when they offered a license to grow CBD to treat epilepsy patients,” Meyers said. “And I was fortunate to get that license. And I will tell you, once you see a five-month-old child having 50 seizures a day, that is calm to even stopped with seizures with a simple preparation of this oil, it changes you. So my heart has always been in the medical aspect of it, and we have many people in this state that feel the same.”

To begin the discussion, Meyers invited panelists to introduce themselves and share how they became involved in cannabis. Jonathan Rosenthal of BellRock Brands and Mary’s Medicinals shared that his journey began with a personal experience.

“My mom was diagnosed with cancer and saw how cannabis helped her through neuropathic pain, cancer treatment, just walking everyday life, appetite suppressant, just all the different things that you go through,” Rosenthal said. “As we continue to discuss this important topic and just keep it real based on the promise that we made to Missourians, it’s extremely important for us just to keep that North Star and what that commitment means, which is education. You’ll hear a lot of different facts, a lot of different points of view. But if you look at the total state of Missouri of adults and percentage of medical patients that are still out there that don’t even know that they’re medical patients, it tops about 1.7 million and that’s across chronic pain, arthritis, sleep disorders, appetite, eating disorders.”

Dr. Trish Hurford, a pain management physician, shared how she initially opposed cannabis until a chance meeting with Meyers and a successful patient case opened her eyes.

“I was anti-cannabis in 2012,” Hurford said. “And then my staff agreed to have me meet with this person named Mitch Meyers. Mitch showed up in my office a couple weeks later with a topical agent, because I had just seen a patient who couldn’t tolerate traditional pharmacologic agents. And we used that on her shoulder. Impressively, she got some relief. Was she perfect? No. And that was my introduction to the cannabis work.” Hurford detailed how that first interaction and the positive results she observed set the foundation for her passion for cannabis and advocacy.

Adult-use shift and patient experience

As the discussion shifted to adult use, Meyers asked Tyler Hannegan of Robust and Feel State how recreational sales affected engagement with medical patients. Hannegan said the transition brought challenges to maintaining education and personalized care.

“It really went from kind of the profiles and the uniqueness that we are having of all unique brands, really educating, having all that time with customers and patients at that time to now treating a whole segment of the industry, which makes up a large part of that, that is just focused on potency elements,” Hannegan said. “We struggle with selling some of our genetics that only test around 25%, but they’re very unique.”

He emphasized education and customer service as essential to maintaining loyalty and creating a positive experience.

Hannegan’s Feel State Dispensary has the most 5 star ratings of any dispensary in the state and is widely considered one of the state’s top consumer experiences at retail.

“You don’t just get 8,600 five-star reviews like that. That’s not typical, but that’s something that I put on our team every second,” he said. “Coming from the medical world and getting that brand allegiance for us and then having a very diversified menu has allowed it to get better. But we’re still fighting that every day.”

In the same vein, Maddi Pearcy explained the importance of company culture and engagement in fostering education for both

“If you embed education and honestly caring as a part of the culture at your facility, then that makes all the difference,” she said. “That also lands on producers. You have to get out, you have to educate budtenders, you have to educate people at pop ups, whatever it might be,” she explained, imploring operators to be proactive in creating education and outreach.

Dr. Hurford discussed how the trade association is hoping to help bridge the gap by offering physician training through the Health and Education Committee.

“We started putting together a primer for physicians to teach physicians in the state about the plant,” Hurford said. “If these physicians had no idea what the plant did, how it worked, what there might be from an adverse effect standpoint with other medications or health diseases, how would they ever feel comfortable making those recommendations?”

She added that the committee regularly engages with lawyers, hospital administrators, workers’ compensation cases, and nurses to encourage integration of cannabis medicine.

“There is no way to develop a strong cannabis medicine program without the collaborative efforts of an entire team,” Hurford said.

Targeted production

Turning the conversation toward formulation, Meyers asked Michael Bronfein of Curio Wellness how science plays into product development.

“Our sleep study was done over a three-year period with about 160 people. It’s been published and it showed that this product helped people sleep longer and better,” Bronfein said.

He added that the product now holds two patents and has seen consistent success in Maryland.

 
  

Bronfein also shared his personal experience with Crohn’s disease and the creation of a targeted GI product that utilizes CBG and a patented delivery mechanism.

“I’ve been on [our GI product] for three years. I’ve never had any lapse of Crohn’s in that time,” he said. “This natural plant product is very, very safe.”

He emphasized that thoughtful formulation and targeted delivery are critical to real efficacy.

“You can’t just put two things in a gummy and call it a solution. It’s about how you deliver it,” he said.

Reaching patients where they are

When the panel turned to the issue of reaching underserved patients, Meyers asked how operators were engaging mature or wellness-focused consumers.

Rosenthal outlined his experience building medical-focused outreach in other states.

“We’re exploring proactively going out to assisted living facilities, nursing homes and outpatient centers,” Rosenthal said. “Then we actually bus the patients to their most local dispensary and have clinical hours with those patients.”

He explained that this type of outreach, once established with one location, has the potential to scale regionally.

“That type of education just becomes easy to communicate with one another,” Rosenthal said. “Each of the retail locations has to say, all right, let’s just find the nearest place that has the population. Where’s the highest incidence?”

He also addressed consumer segmentation.

“We try to break up that medical consumer population by kind of three groups—chronic users, transitional users, and new consumers,” Rosenthal said. “Those transitional patients who bounce between rec and medical and jump around based on promotions, they’re not the base. The ones who are consistent with their product purchases—they’re your loyal customers. If they don’t find what they need, they’re not coming back.”

Retail environment and design

Dickerson emphasized that dispensary design and experience play a key role in making patients feel comfortable.

“When we’re designing a retail store, we really try to make it not overly gimmicky, not like a convenience store, but not overly clinical either,” he said. “The goal is really comfort and credibility.”

He warned that poor first experiences, especially for older patients unfamiliar with cannabis, can result in long-term aversion.

“I can’t tell you how many people that would benefit greatly from cannabis that went into a dispensary, taken one, maybe two gummies before anything hit, and they come back and they’re like, I will never try cannabis again,” Dickerson said.

He emphasized the need for knowledgeable staff to support those patients.

“I had a gentleman come in, and he was probably in his mid-seventies. And he was nervous, you could tell,” explained Pearcy. “He was jittery, he was shaking a little bit, and he said, ‘I was really hesitant to come in here. I’ve been on these pain meds forever, and they make me feel like I’m not myself.’ We talked about cannabis as an alternative, and he left with a topical and a small gummy. He came back two weeks later and gave me the biggest hug. He said, ‘You gave me my life back.’ That’s why we do what we do.”

“These adult-use consumers, patients, when they come in, if they want to talk to somebody, we need to have a staff there that’s trained and able to answer those questions,” Dickerson  reiterated.

Meyers closed the event with a call to action for operators and product manufacturers.

“People who need medicine, will come back every month for that medicine,” Meyers said. “And one of the biggest complaints I hear is that one time they’ll buy a product and the next time they come back and you’re out of stock, you don’t have it. And a lot of times the staff can’t tell them why. That’s a miss. So when you develop this medical patient, make sure you have that product for them.”