April 20 is a day recognized globally for celebrating cannabis culture, but it’s also like the cannabis industry’s Black Friday.
Dispensaries offer deals designed to inspire people to flood their stores to stock up.
However on Saturday, dispensaries across the state using an inventory platform called Dutchie were hamstrung for hours by technical challenges, which caused many of their registers to go down or move at snail pace.
It was the second year in a row that a 4/20 sales surge caused the system to crash.
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“Imagine running a restaurant where you have one burner working and you normally have 20 stoves operating,” said Nick Rinella, CEO of Hippos Cannabis dispensaries. “We had one burner going.”
Each Hippos location went from selling around 500 items per hour to less than 100 because of the issues the outages were causing, he said.
Dutchie is similar to the platforms major stores, such as Home Depot and Walmart, use to scan items at check out. However, Dutchie also has the special function of communicating with the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system called Metrc.
It keeps the stores compliant with the state’s stringent tracking requirements of marijuana products.
With recreational marijuana now legal, 4/20 looked much different in Missouri
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Rinella said all three Hippos dispensaries in Springfield, Chesterfield and Columbia faced delays all day — causing them to lose an estimated $200,000.
Mark Hendren, president of Flora Farms, also said his six stores across the state faced delays up to five hours. He’s not sure what kind of loss Flora Farms experienced, he said, because the company extended their deals through Monday to make it up to their customers.
“It seems to be working,” he said.
John Mueller, CEO of Greenlight cannabis company, said his 15 stores were not impacted, nor were any of the company’s 32 stores across the country. Greenlight stores experienced some outages last year, he said, so they were expecting the same this year.
“We prepared and trained for the outage that never came,” Mueller said. “But I’ve heard from a number of my peers that they had outages and somehow we did not.”
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Dispensaries that are on certain servers faced more difficulties, Rinella said, but it’s the luck of the draw which servers companies are put on. Companies can’t pay more to get on the “good server,” he said.
Missouri was not alone. Dispensaries across the country experienced delays on Dutchie.
“This year’s 4/20 was a record setting day for the majority of Dutchie powered dispensaries,” Chris Ostrowski, chief technology officer of Dutchie, said in a statement emailed to The Independent.
Ostowski said the systems powered more than two million transactions, representing $165 Million dollars in retail commerce — which was a 50% increase from last year’s 4/20.
“While Dutchie and our partners prepared extensively for this year’s 4/20, a group of customers local to a specific instance of our POS system experienced serious issues that impacted their ability to transact,” Ostrowski said.
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The difficulties impacted less than 20% of Dutchie customers, he said.
Rinella said Dutchie’s statement just made the incident sting even more.
“Hearing that is just painful to me,” Rinella said. “So they had a 50% increase. That means I probably would have had a 50% increase had they not jacked my entire system for the day.”
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It’s unclear if Missouri’s cannabis industry had record-breaking sales this past weekend. April’s sales numbers won’t be available on the state’s website until early May.
However, Rinella said the sales were likely record-breaking, which is why the bandwidth on Dutchie’s server couldn’t handle the volume that was coming through.
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Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Division of Cannabis Regulation, said the Dutchie malfunctions did not interfere with the division’s tracking operations.
“While licensees are permitted to use these [point of sale] systems, it is their responsibility to ensure each day’s transactions and inventory are recorded accurately in the statewide track and trace system,” Cox said, “no matter what happens with the POS system.”
Rinella said the staff and customers were very understanding, and hopes any new customers that came to the stores on 4/20 aren’t discouraged to come back.
“We kind of want to do more of an apology,” he said. “Obviously, this wasn’t something that we could control, but we do want to be able to make sure that customers get the greatest experience they can possibly get when coming to a dispensary.”
Here’s how to take action when a person goes missing.
The remains of a Missouri Valley man, missing for nearly three years, were found by law enforcement in April.
Jesse George, 35, was reported missing on June 29, 2023. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, in conjunction with the Missouri Valley Police Department and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office continued to investigate his disappearance, according to a news release from the Iowa DCI.
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On April 15, 2026, law enforcement excavated a location four miles northwest of Missouri Valley where human remains were found, the release said. The remains were positively identified as George’s and the Iowa State Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide.
Joseph Langford, 52, also of Missouri Valley, was arrested by the Iowa DCI in George’s death on Monday, May 18. He was charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.
An investigation into George’s death is ongoing.
Langford admitted to killing, burying body to others
George was last seen with Langford near a camper around Fourth Street in Missouri Valley on the morning of June 29, 2023. Langford later admitted the two had an argument in the camper, according to court filings.
Later that morning, around 4:30 a.m., Langford had a friend help move a car that was parked in front of the camper. Langford was armed with a rifle and wouldn’t let his friend in the camper, the court filing said. He later told the same friend that “somebody’s gone, they’re not coming back, and I’m going to prison.”
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Langford and his sister took the camper to an Interstate 29 rest area, where they were both employed, and cleaned the camper, according to the court filings.
A report to local law enforcement was made about the camper. Upon arrival, law enforcement saw bullet holes in the side of the camper, and blood was observed in the camper. The camper was processed by law enforcement at that time. Forensic testing determined the blood to be George’s.
About a year later, Langford admitted to killing George to another friend, the court filings said. He also told a coworker he had shot and killed George in the camper. He also admitted to burying George’s body behind the rest area.
An autopsy determined George had been shot multiple times.
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Langford is in the custody of the Harrison County Jail on a $1 million cash bond, with a court appearance scheduled for May 27.
Kyle Werner is the breaking news and public safety reporter for the Register. Reach him at kwerner@registermedia.com.
Providence Road over Interstate 70 in Columbia is set to close for five months starting in late May, according to a news release from the Missouri Department of Transportation.
The process will begin with demolition and removal of the overpass bridge and pedestrian bridge beginning at 9 p.m. May 29 until 9 a.m. May 31, according to the release. During the demolition and removal of the bridge, there will be no access to or from Providence Road from I-70, and both directions of the I-70 will be reduced to one lane.
The ramp from Range Line Street onto westbound I-70 will be closed for the duration of the demolition and replacement, according to the release. Pedestrians will have to find an alternate route during this time due to the removal of the pedestrian bridge.
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Once the demolition and cleanup are complete on May 31, I-70 will return to normal traffic patterns in the area, according to the release.
As the new bridge is built over the five-month period, the ramp from westbound I-70 to Providence Road will be closed, and there will be no access for drivers to cross the interstate. Signed detours will be available for alternate routes, according to the news release.
The new overpass bridge will be longer to accommodate a third lane of I-70 in each direction and raised to allow passage of taller vehicles, according to the release. The overpass will feature pedestrian crossings and “beautification elements” including decorative lighting, railings and fencing, stone-pattern retaining walls and bridge facade enhancements.
The work is part of MoDOT’s Rocheport to Columbia I-70 improvement project, which is part of a larger program to expand the interstate to three lanes in each direction and improve interchanges and overpasses along the corridor.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) -Missouri election clerks are updating voter rolls without knowing which congressional map will be used for the August election.
The map passed in a special legislative session last year splits up Kansas City’s vote in a way that is likely to send one more Republican to Washington. More than 300,000 signatures on a veto petition are being checked for authenticity. If enough signatures are valid, the new map will be put on pause retroactively.
Secretary of State Denny Hoskins confirms the new map is in effect right now, but the Missouri Supreme Court ruling says it’s “impossible to say” which map will be in effect by the time of the August primary election.
But election officials like Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon are speaking out, saying it’s impossible to know which map to use until the signatures are verified.
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“Our hope is that the Secretary of State’s Office makes a determination sooner rather than later so that we can put all this uncertainty to rest,” Lennon said.
Hoskins said he will use the full time available to review signatures.
“I’m going to use the entire time that I have possible in order to review those signatures, let the county clerks do their job and certify those signatures, and then begin my certification process,” Hoskins said.
Lennon said she needs confirmation by early June on which map will be in effect in order to send out military and absentee ballots. Hoskins has until Aug. 4, the same day as the primary election, to certify the veto petition.
Lennon started moving voters into their new districts but is concerned about the potential fallout if there’s no legal confirmation on which map to use. The consequences could be as dire as having to completely redo the election, which brings funding concerns.
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“I have full confidence that local elections will make it work,” Lennon said. “It’s going to take resources, and I’m not sure where those resources will come from.”
People Not Politicians, the campaign behind the veto petition, filed a lawsuit against Hoskins and Attorney General Catherine Hanaway on Monday. The lawsuit demands they cease attempts to intimidate and coerce elected officials into using an invalid map for the 2026 elections or issue the referendum as insufficient and move forward with judicial review of that decision.
“The Supreme Court of Missouri made it clear there was one path needed to be able to conduct an election that all Missourians can be confident in. We need to take that path,” said Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians. “There are more than enough signatures, verified by election authorities, to qualify the referendum.”
Von Glahn said Hoskins is risking conducting an invalid election by refusing to acknowledge what he called sufficient signatures. If the veto petition is verified, Missourians will vote on which map to keep in November.
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