MoCann, Mo’ Problems: The Lawyer Who Built the Loopholes

Missouri’s cannabis industry didn’t just eat itself — it hired its own lawyer to cook the corpse.

Meet Eric Walter, general counsel for the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association (MoCann Trade). The same guy who helped draft Missouri’s 2022 cannabis amendment and shaped the so-called “social equity” program is now the centerpiece of the state’s latest corruption circus — writing 22 of the contracts that regulators just called predatory and used to revoke licenses.

You can’t spell “equity” without E-R-I-C, apparently.

The Equity Scam They Call Reform

When Missouri voters approved legalization in 2022, they were told it would include microbusiness licenses — small-scale operations reserved for people from communities crushed by the drug war. It was supposed to be the state’s redemption arc: expunge the past, empower the future.

What those voters got instead was a goddamn paperwork trap.

Walter’s contracts gave consulting firms and investors the right to buy out small operators after two years, with breakup fees up to $2.5 million. That’s not mentorship — that’s financial waterboarding.

One revoked operator told Boof, “They told me this was a chance to own a business. Turns out I was the business.”

Regulators at DHSS said the agreements violated the constitutional rule that equity licensees must be majority-owned and controlled by the applicant. Translation: the same people who wrote the law engineered a backdoor to break it.

MoCann’s Lawyer, MoCann’s Mess

Let’s be clear — this isn’t some rogue attorney freelancing for beer money. Walter is MoCann Trade’s lawyer — the lobby representing the biggest players in Missouri cannabis.

He’s not gaming the system. He is the system.

According to the Missouri Independent, 22 revoked licenses are tied directly to Walter-drafted contracts. Thirty-five total have been stripped. More than half of the mess has his letterhead on it.

A DHSS staffer told Boof, “He built the fucking loopholes, then billed people for falling in.”

The Corporate Food Chain

Here’s how the scam worked:

1. Equity applicants — low-income, minority, or formerly incarcerated Missourians — win microbusiness licenses.

2. “Consultants” appear, offering funding and “support.”

3. Contracts drafted by Walter hand control to those consultants.

4. Two years later, fine print triggers. The applicant loses everything.
   

Another revoked operator said she discovered her consultant owned every decision, down to the damn paint color.

“I thought I had a dispensary. Turns out I was the fucking mascot.”

The MoCann Loop

This isn’t a conflict of interest. It’s a full-circle racket.

MoCann Trade lobbied for legalization, wrote the amendment, cheered the equity program, and now — through its own lawyer — is profiting off the fallout.

When asked if that sounded shady, a MoCann spokesperson told Boof,

“Conflict? We prefer to think of it as synergy.”

Synergy. Like cancer and metastasis.

The State’s Half-Hearted Cleanup

DHSS revoked the licenses and called the contracts “predatory.” But that’s where the heroics end.No prosecutions. No disbarment. No bans.

Meanwhile, MoCann Trade keeps hosting luncheons and policy panels while the “equity” owners pack boxes.

Dan Viets of Missouri NORML summed it up:

“They’re pretending to fix a system that was rigged in the blueprint. This wasn’t an accident — it was intent.”

The Real Crime Scene

Missouri’s “social equity” rollout is what happens when lobbyists draft justice with a ruler and a calculator.

The people who wrote the fix also wrote the fucking crime.

MoCann Trade built the stage.Eric Walter wrote the script.And DHSS is still sweeping up the debris between acts.

Closing Argument

Missouri’s cannabis story was supposed to be redemption for the people crushed by prohibition.Instead, it’s the same insiders, the same suits, the same rot — just at higher prices.

The revolution got notarized.

Boof du Jour Verdict: Burn the paperwork. Keep the names. Eric Walter isn’t a symptom — he’s the template.

And if you think this shit only happens in Missouri, look closer. Every state has a version of him — smiling, billing hourly, and calling it equity.