Cannabis processor Dark Horse Medicinals expanding into Missouri, Mississippi

Little Rock marijuana processor Dark Horse Medicinals will expand into Missouri this month with plans to begin operations in Mississippi later this year. 

Dark Horse Medicinals, located in a West Little Rock office park, processes cannabis produced by Arkansas cultivators and dispensaries into products such as chocolates, gummies and vape cartridges. The products appear on Arkansas dispensary shelves under both the Dark Horse name and under the names of other producers in the state. 

Dark Horse will perform those same services in Missouri and also plans to make products for three national brands in Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi, according to Dark Horse CEO and cofounder Casey Flippo. 

“Within the next month, the forecast and the nature of our business is set to be on a pretty dramatic uptrend,” Flippo said. 

The Arkansas Times toured the Dark Horse facility last year and profiled the company for our magazine.  

Brian Chilson

In Missouri, Dark Horse is purchasing an existing cannabis company in the Columbia area with a 12,000 square-foot manufacturing and processing facility. Dark Horse plans to begin operations there later this month and Flippo said the company can get to work right away because it is purchasing an operating business rather than building from scratch. 

Flippo declined to name the Missouri company involved in the transaction. 

Flippo said Dark Horse’s Missouri operation will have 22 employees, which is the same number that work for the company in Little Rock. 

Missouri legalized recreational marijuana through the ballot box in November and began its recreational marijuana program last month. Flippo said the Missouri company it is buying had tripled its revenue in the first month of recreational sales. 

In Mississippi, Dark Horse is applying for a processing license and expects to begin operations there around September of this year. Flippo said the company has not decided on a location but is likely to settle in the Jackson area of the state and compared it to its centrally located operations in Little Rock and Columbia. 

As it begins its Mississippi operations, Dark Horse will only be making products associated with the three national brands it is working with. The Mississippi medical marijuana program began last year and only has about 4,000 patients enrolled, so Flippo said a large capital investment there doesn’t make sense at this time.