Marijuana dispensary opens on Arkansas-Missouri border

Flora Farms, a Missouri-based company that sells cannabis, has opened a new dispensary in Pineville, Mo., a town just across the Arkansas state line north of Bella Vista along U.S. Highway 71.

The new location opened on Jan. 5 and replaces a smaller store in Neosho, Mo., that closed on Dec. 31.

Flora Farms is leasing the building from a private real estate company. The previous tenant was a fireworks vendor.

Some features of the store include a covered drive-thru window and 14 register stations.

A company spokeswoman said the store employs 40 people.

Missouri voters legalized recreational marijuana one year ago, and it is one of 24 states where adult use is legal. There is no residence requirement to buy cannabis at a dispensary. The only requirement is a valid government-issued ID that says the customer is 21 years old.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Arkansas since 2019, but recreational use remains prohibited. An amendment to the Arkansas Constitution authorizing possession and use of cannabis by adults failed at the ballot box in November 2022, with about 53% of the vote against it.

Flora Farms is owned by over 25 investors, mostly from Missouri, with an estimated annual revenue between $15 million and $20 million.

The company operates five Missouri dispensaries. A sixth location will open later this spring.

A company spokeswoman did not have specific sales information available from the Pineville store’s opening weekend.

This past spring, however, Flora Farms President Mark Hendren told the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader that the company’s dispensary in Neosho, which is about 40 miles north of the Arkansas border and 20 miles east of the Oklahoma border, experienced a “dramatic increase” in sales from out-of-state customers, who he estimated accounted for up to 60% of the business at that location.