Opposition to medical marijuana in Missouri as key deadline arrives Monday

You can’t convince Joy Sweeney that medical marijuana is a good thing for Missouri.

Jefferson City’s director of the Council for Drug Free Youth says it gives kids the wrong message about drug use.

“I’m very apprehensive about what this is going to do to our society.”

Sweeney adds that she doesn’t buy the argument that regulated medical marijuana will eliminate the black market sales to those who don’t have access to legal pot.

More about medical marijuana from The Associated Press:

Missouri is giving businesses that want to run medical marijuana facilities more time to file applications.

Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services on Thursday extended the deadline until 4:30 p.m. Monday. The deadline was scheduled to end Saturday.

Department director Randall Williams said in a statement that the agency learned during the early days of accepting applications that it was helpful to have representatives available to answer questions for applicants.

He said the department is expecting a large number of applications to be submitted in a short amount of time and wants to ensure all the applicants get the help they need.

The department said 236 applications have been submitted.

The state plans to license 60 cultivation facilities, 192 dispensaries, 86 medical marijuana-infused manufacturing facilities and 10 testing labs.