After September 15, Can I Still be a Caregiver?

The Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation is persevering on their stance that all marijuana centers that are not licensed by the State under the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, will have to shut down, and will get a cease and desist letter at that time. While the facilities are not mandated to close down, the State Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs has explained that any center that continues to operate after receipt of the cease and desist will likely not be given a license. Additionally, the State has stated recommended Final Rules relating to Medical Marihuana Facilities licensing, which is going to enable or registered qualifying patients to obtain home deliveries from provisioning centers (with constraint, naturally) as well as will also allow online purchasing. So, where does that leave registered caregivers, that were anticipating to be able to stay relevant to their patients till 2021?

Traditional

The old for registered caregivers was pretty straightforward. You were permitted to cultivate up to twelve plants for each patient. You could have five patients, aside from yourself. If the caregiver was also a patient, they could additionally cultivate twelve plants for personal usage also. So, a caregiver could cultivate a total of seventy-two marihuana plants. Most caregivers generated far more usable marihuana from those plants than they could use for patients and personal usage. 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 not received a State license were allowed to continue running and also buying from registered caregivers. Those centers were allowed to buy caregiver excess for thirty days after receiving their State license for supply. That implied substantial earnings for caregivers and considerable supply for dispensaries.

After September 15, 2018

The troubles for registered caregivers only begins on September 15, 2018. All State licensed facilities that will remain open and operating can not buy any type of product from caregivers. State Licensed Provisioning Centers, but statute and administrative rules are strictly banned from getting or offering any item that is not generated by a State Licensed Grower 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 up for sale that is not from a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor is subject to State sanctions on their license, consisting of short-term or irreversible retraction of the license. Given the risk, licensed centers are really unlikely to risk buying from a caregiver, offered the potential repercussions.

Further, the unlicensed facilities to whom caregivers have been continuing to market to, even during the licensing procedure, will certainly be closing down. Some may continue to run, but given the State's position on centers that do not adhere to their cease and desist letters being looked at very unfavorably in the licensing process, the market will certainly be seriously lessened, if not eliminated. Consequently, caregivers will certainly not have much choice for marketing their overages, and also will certainly be limited only to their present patients.

New Administrative Rules

A hearing will be held on September 17, 2018 regarding the new proposed final administrative rules for the regulation of medical marihuana facilities, which will become effective in November, when the emergency rules cease being effective. Those final suggested administrative rules permit house delivery by a provisioning center, and will also allow managed online purchasing. Those two things take away much of the function contemplated by caregivers under the new regulations. Patients would still need them to visit the provisioning center to pick up and deliver cannabis to patients that were too ill or that were impaired and could not reach those licensed centers to acquire their medicinal cannabis. With this change to the administrative rules, such patients will no longer need a caregiver. They will be able to place an order online and have the provisioning center deliver it to them, essentially getting rid of the need of a caregiver.

Verdict

For better or worse, the State is doing everything it can to eliminate caregivers under the brand-new administrative plan, even before the planned elimination in 2021 contemplated by the MMFLA. There are a lot 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 , and they are moving that process along with celerity. The State is sending the message that they desire caregivers out of the industry asap, and they are developing policies to make certain that happens sooner rather than later. The caregiver model, while advantageous and necessary under the old Michigan Medical Marihuana Act structure, are now going the way of the Dodo. Like everything else, the Marihuana legislations are evolving, and some things that have flourished in the past, won't make it to see the brand-new legalized era.