Private law firms are still defending Missouri regulators against an avalanche of lawsuits filed by losing medical marijuana business applicants, with legal fees continuing to accumulate.

Costs now top $6.7 million, said Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Senior Services. Lawyers are paid with revenue generated by the medical marijuana program, which, after accounting for legal fees and other program costs, flows to veterans.

The $6.7 million price tag rivals the $6.8 million the medical marijuana program transferred to the Missouri Veterans Commission last week, a figure that isn’t likely to solve the agency’s ongoing financial woes.

Cox has argued the costs of allowing “unlimited licenses” outweigh the short-term costs of defending the state’s licensing decisions, which included a controversial application scoring process and limits on the number of licenses issued.

Legislators have been critical of the continued spending, with the House overwhelmingly backing a plan this year to pressure the state to remove the limits on licenses.

Proponents say doing so would generate even more money for the state through licensing fees and increased sales, while boosting competition in the existing medical marijuana market.

Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, said the $6.7 million in legal fees would have been better spent on veterans.

“Instead of that money going to support them (veterans) and veterans homes, it’s being spent on lawyers to try and prevent businesses from participating in a marketplace,” he said.

For example, the state has extended a contract with the Polsinelli law firm to March 2022 for medical marijuana legal services. So far this fiscal year, the state has paid Polsinelli more than $500,000, according to spending records.

Merideth said while his effort to pressure the state to lift the caps easily cleared the House, it died when Steve Tilley, lobbyist for the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association, worked to kill the plan.

“When Steve Tilley and his group are the lobbyists wanting to kill this, it’s going to have a hard time ever passing the Senate,” Merideth said.

Tilley, a former speaker of the Missouri House and a close ally of Gov. Mike Parson, did not respond to a request for comment.

Though the legal costs are in the millions of dollars, the fees are lower than state projections earlier this year.

The director of the marijuana program, Lyndall Fraker, expected the state to spend $6.2 million in the fiscal year that ended in June. He expected the state to pay the same amount in the current fiscal year.

But costs topped out at $5.2 million in the fiscal year that just ended. So far this fiscal year, which began July 1, the state has paid out nearly $700,000.

Cox said that out of more than 850 appeals originally filed with the Administrative Hearing Commission, 588 were still pending.

Meanwhile, cannabis proponents are moving forward with an initiative to completely legalize marijuana in 2022.

The effort, which has the backing of established industry players, would allow current medical marijuana business licensees to have the first shot at comprehensive recreational business licenses.

The proposal says current medical marijuana licensees would have the right to “convert” their medical licenses into recreational ones.

It says the state won’t be able to issue full recreational licenses to other entities for 548 days after it starts issuing licenses.

Canvassers must collect enough signatures by next May for the initiative to make the November ballot. Supporters of competing efforts have so far not demonstrated an ability to raise substantial funds for a campaign.

This article was first published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It’s authored by Jack Suntrup.