The Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation is persevering on their stance that all cannabis facilities that are not licensed by the State under the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, will need to close down, and will receive a cease and desist letter at that time. While the centers are not mandated to close down, the State Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs has explained that any facility that continues to run after receipt of the cease and desist will most likely not be given a license. Additionally, the State has stated proposed Final Rules regarding Medical Marihuana Facilities licensing, which is going to permit or registered qualifying patients to get house shipments from provisioning centers (with constraint, obviously) and will additionally allow online ordering. So, where does that leave registered caregivers, who were expecting to be able to stay relevant to their patients up until 2021?
Traditional Model
The old for registered caregivers was rather straightforward. You were permitted to grow up to twelve plants for each client. You could have 5 patients, besides yourself. If the caregiver was also a patient, they could likewise grow twelve plants for personal usage also. So, a caregiver could cultivate a total amount of seventy-two marihuana plants. Many caregivers produced far more usable marihuana from those plants than they could utilize for clients and personal use. The caregivers would then sell their excess product to medical marihuana dispensaries.
Under the emergency rules, marihuana dispensaries that were operating with municipal approval, but that had actually not obtained a State license were permitted to proceed operating and also buying from registered caregivers. Those facilities were allowed to purchase caregiver overages for thirty days after obtaining their State license for supply. That meant significant profits for caregivers and considerable supply for dispensaries.
After September 15, 2018
The problems for registered caregivers only begins on September 15, 2018. All State licensed centers that will remain open and operating can not buy any kind of product from caregivers. State Licensed Provisioning Centers, but statute and administrative rules are strictly banned from getting or offering any product that is not generated by a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor that has had their product tested and certified by a State Licensed Safety Compliance Facility. Any State Licensed Provisioning Center that is discovered to have product available that is not from a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor is subject to State sanctions on their license, including temporary or irreversible revocation of the license. Given the threat, licensed centers are really unlikely to take the chance of purchasing from a caregiver, given the potential repercussions.
Further, the unlicensed facilities to whom caregivers have been continuing to sell to, even during the licensing procedure, will be closing down. Some may continue to run, but given the State's stance on facilities that do not adhere to their cease and desist letters being looked at very adversely in the licensing process, the market will be significantly decreased, if not eliminated. Because of this, caregivers will certainly not have much option for selling their overages, and will be restricted only to their existing patients.
New Administrative Rules
A hearing will be held on September 17, 2018 concerning the new recommended final administrative rules for the regulation of medical marihuana facilities, which will become effective in November, when the emergency rules discontinue being effective. Those final proposed administrative rules enable house delivery by a provisioning center, and will likewise allow controlled online buying. Those two things remove much of the function contemplated by caregivers under the new policies. Patients would certainly still require them to visit the provisioning facility to pick up and deliver cannabis to patients that were too unwell or who were handicapped and could not reach those licensed facilities to obtain their medicinal marijuana. With this modification to the administrative rules, such clients will no longer require a caregiver. They will have the ability to place an order online and have the provisioning facility deliver it to them, basically getting rid of the necessity of a caregiver.
Verdict
For better or worse, the State is doing everything it can to remove caregivers under the new administrative plan, even prior to the intended elimination in 2021 contemplated by the MMFLA. There are a great deal of factors the State could be doing it, but that is of little comfort to caregivers. The bottom line is, the State is eliminating the caregiver model, and they are moving that process along with celerity. The State is sending the message that they want caregivers out of the industry asap, and they are establishing rules to guarantee that happens sooner rather than later. The caregiver model, while helpful and necessary under the old Michigan Medical Marihuana Act structure, are now going the way of the Dodo. Like everything else, the Marihuana regulations are evolving, and some things that have flourished in the past, won't make it to see the new legalized era.
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