ST. CHARLES, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Missouri is quickly approaching its two-year anniversary of the first legal sale of recreational marijuana following the passing of Amendment 3 in late 2022.
Since its passing, the state touts a $1.4 billion cannabis market generating more than $241 million in sales tax revenue annually for state and local governments. That’s competitive with other states in the legal weed game like Colorado and Illinois.
Legalization of recreational use in Missouri for personal use for adults over the age of 21 includes:
PurchasePossessionConsumptionUseDeliveryManufacturingAnd sale of marijuana
It also put into motion expunging more than 130,000 past, non-violent marijuana offenses from Missourian’s criminal records.
Quindarian Wright and Brenan Sydnor face multiple charges, including first-degree assault, armed criminal action, and unlawful possession of a firearm following gunfire over a drug deal gone bad involving marijuana, which at the time was already legal for almost a year.
First Alert 4 Investigates obtained new police camera footage from a drug deal gone bad in January 2024 from St. Charles Police. Multiple officer videos reveal chaos unfolding on the city’s northside, near 370.
Law enforcement arrived just minutes after shots rang out, leaving two people hurt. Police told First Alert 4 that both sides in the drug deal were armed and planned to rip each other off. All of that over marijuana, a drug that had been legal in Missouri for almost two years. Violent crime St. Charles Police Chief Ray Juengst said shouldn’t be happening in Missouri.
“It causes greed,” Chief Juengst explained. “We legalized it, you do that, it gets more expensive. the black market for marijuana is still huge. no one wants to pay the taxes, cheaper to get, cheaper to steal.”
St. Charles County Prosecutor Joe McCulloch told First Alert 4 Investigates that Missourians are allowed to have up to three ounces. He said another provision allows a resident to have another three ounces.
”There was violence before; it’s just surprising there is still violence now that it is legal,” McCulloch shared. “It’s always the violence associated with drugs that catches the public’s eyes more than the drugs.”
McCulloch said that’s why buying a legal drug on the illegal market does not make sense.
“We need to go back and start enforcing that,” McCulloch shared. “I think it’s fallen off the radar because it’s legal to have marijuana, so the selling part is illegal, but if you buy it illegally and have it so, it’s legal. so it’s a very small window of opportunity to address the sale of marijuana.”
Here’s a look at what the City of St. Charles has seen the last four years with calls for service where marijuana or weed was mentioned to dispatch:
2021: 1812022: 164 (IT WAS LEGALIZED ON 12/8/2022)2023: 1242024: 101
That data shows calls are down about 40% since legalization but still too high for St. Charles PD.
”We take these incidents serious,” Chief Juengst shared. “You hear complaints across the metro of not getting solved. this is an example of how we take each crime seriously.”
McCulloch told First Alert 4 that violent crime tied to marijuana isn’t the top pressing crime in St. Charles County but said he has instructed law enforcement agencies in the county to refocus their drug dreams.
“What is a priority are the situations we are talking about with illegal sales and the violence that goes along with that,” McCulloch shared. “Once we have that then we are pursuing the prosecution of those individuals.”
St. Charles Police is the only department in the county that said it tracks marijuana-related calls specifically.
First Alert 4 did reach out to other departments to find out if this type of crime is tracked.
The Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department said it does track homicides involving narcotics but does not break that data down to individual drugs. It’s similar in St. Louis County, where police don’t track marijuana specifically because it is legal. The department said it does record in robbery cases when marijuana is recovered as evidence.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office told First Alert 4 it does not track marijuana specifically. If a report does involve marijuana, it’s classified as “Informational” as it is now legal.
It is unclear if marijuana-related crimes are tracked at the state level. First Alert 4 Investigates has made multiple requests to the Missouri Attorney General’s office and have yet to receive responses back.
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Missouri is quickly approaching its two-year anniversary of the first legal sale of recreational marijuana following the passing of Amendment 3 in late 2022. Read More
