After September 15, Can I Still be a Caregiver?

The Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation is persevering on their position that all marijuana facilities that are not licensed by the State under the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, will have to close down, and will receive a cease and desist letter at that time. While the centers are not mandated to shut 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 granted a license. Additionally, the State has set forth suggested Final Rules pertaining to Medical Marihuana Facilities licensing, which is going to permit or registered qualifying patients to receive home deliveries from provisioning centers (with constraint, of course) and also will additionally permit online ordering. So, where does that leave registered caregivers, who were anticipating to be able to continue to be relevant to their patients until 2021?

Traditional

The old for registered caregivers was rather simple. You were allowed to grow up to twelve plants for each patient. You could have 5 patients, apart from yourself. If the caregiver was also a patient, they could additionally cultivate twelve plants for personal usage also. So, a caregiver could cultivate an overall of seventy-two marihuana plants. Most caregivers created far more usable marihuana from those plants than they could utilize for clients and individual use. The caregivers would then sell their excess product to medical marihuana dispensaries.

Under the emergency rules, marihuana dispensaries that were running with municipal approval, but that had actually not received a State license were permitted to continue operating 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 indicated significant earnings for caregivers and also significant supply for dispensaries.

After September 15, 2018

The issues for registered caregivers only starts 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 purchasing or selling any product that is not generated by a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor that has actually had their item tested and certified by a State Licensed Safety Compliance Facility. Any State Licensed Provisioning Center that is found to have product for sale that is not from a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor is subject to State sanctions on their license, including short-term or permanent retraction of the license. Given the danger, licensed centers are extremely unlikely to run the risk of purchasing from a caregiver, given the possible repercussions.

Additionally, the unlicensed facilities to whom caregivers have been continuing to market to, even throughout the licensing process, will be shutting down. Some might continue to run, but given the State's position 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 severely reduced, if not eliminated. Consequently, caregivers will not have much choice for selling their overages, and will certainly be limited only to their current patients.

New Administrative Rules

A hearing will be held on September 17, 2018 regarding 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 allow for house delivery by a provisioning center, and will likewise permit managed online buying. Those 2 things remove much of the function contemplated by caregivers under the new guidelines. Patients would still require them to visit the provisioning facility to get and deliver cannabis to patients that were too sick or that were disabled and can not get to those licensed centers to obtain their medicinal cannabis. With this modification to the administrative rules, such patients will no longer require a caregiver. They will be able to place an order online and have the provisioning center deliver it to them, essentially eliminating the requirement of a caregiver.

Final thought

For better or worse, the State is doing everything it can to get rid of caregivers under the new administrative system, even prior to the prepared removal in 2021 contemplated by the MMFLA. There are a lot of reasons 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 market as soon as possible, and they are establishing rules to ensure that happens sooner rather than later. The caregiver model, while advantageous and needed under the old Michigan Medical Marihuana Act structure, are currently 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 new legalized era.