Columbia City Council approves business license regulations for recreational marijuana

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia residents can begin buying recreational marijuana Tuesday morning.

The Columbia City Council -- at its regular meeting on Monday -- unanimously approved the authorization of new business license regulations for recreational marijuana dispensaries.

The Missouri Department of Health and Human Senior Services issued an emergency rule last week, allowing Missouri dispensaries to legally sell marijuana with a state-issued license, as they were approved.

City spokesperson Sydney Olsen said in an email that there are six licensed dispensaries in Columbia. As of Friday afternoon, the City had received pre-application material from all six dispensaries.

"Five out of the six had been able to demonstrate conveyance of a comprehensive license from Mo DHHS," Olsen said in the email.

Olsen added the city's business service team in its finance department has, "done all of the leg work so that they can issue licenses first thing Tuesday morning, pending council approval, and before dispensaries open for the day (normal hours). "