Good Day Farm was the top donor to Missouri’s 2022 legalization campaign. Records show its network grew after the amendment passed with a provision dropping language that limited common control and management of dispensary licenses
The Missouri Independent
When Missouri voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2022, the constitutional amendment they approved carried forward a limit meant to prevent any single company from controlling too much of the market.
But one key phrase from the state’s medical marijuana law was gone.
The constitution’s medical marijuana provision barred the state from issuing more than five dispensary licenses to any entity under “substantially common control, ownership, or management.” The recreational marijuana amendment instead says an entity may not own more than 10% of total dispensary licenses, dropping the language covering common control and management.
That change received little public attention during the campaign. But records obtained by The Independent show it helped create an opening for Good Day Farm, the Little Rock-based marijuana company that was the leading donor to the legalization campaign, to build a much larger footprint in Missouri than the state’s license cap might appear to allow.
Good Day Farm and affiliated entities are now tied through ownership records, management structures and acquisition agreements to more than 60 of Missouri’s 224 dispensary licenses — more than a quarter of the market. The next-largest marijuana operator in Missouri own 16 dispensaries, according to ownership records obtained through a public records request.
A class-action lawsuit this week led by two Missouri marijuana manufacturing companies now alleges that Good Day Farm and its affiliates used that structure to form an “illegal cartel,” coordinating pricing, product supply and retail operations across dispensaries that do not all operate under the Good Day Farm name.
The petition, filed by Local Cannabis and VIBE, names nearly 50 LLCs and a handful of individuals, alleging they violated the state constitution’s cap on the number of licenses one group can own or manage. It also argues Good Day Farm and its affiliates violated Missouri antitrust laws through price-fixing, supplier-allocation agreements and coordinated conduct meant to consolidate control of the state’s retail marijuana market.
“Ultimately, the GDF Cartel has — through a combination of price-fixing, product- and supplier-allocation agreements, and coordinated exclusionary conduct — unlawfully seized control of the Missouri retail dispensary market that serves as the sole channel through which Plaintiffs can legally reach consumers,” states the lawsuit, which was filed in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Good Day Farm did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
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