After September 15, Can I Still be a Caregiver?

The Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation is standing firm on their stance that all marijuana centers that are not licensed by the State under the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, will have to close 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 made clear that any center that continues to run after receipt of the cease and desist will likely not be granted a license. Further, the State has stated suggested Final Rules pertaining 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 certainly likewise permit online buying. So, where does that leave registered caregivers, who were expecting to be able to stay relevant to their patients up until 2021?

Traditional

The old for registered caregivers was quite simple. You were permitted to grow up to twelve plants for each client. You could have five patients, other than yourself. If the caregiver was also a client, they could likewise grow twelve plants for individual usage too. So, a caregiver could grow an overall of seventy-two marihuana plants. The majority of caregivers produced 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 allowed to proceed running as well as buying from registered caregivers. Those centers were permitted to acquire caregiver overages for thirty days after receiving their State license for stock. That meant considerable revenues for caregivers as well as substantial supply for dispensaries.

After September 15, 2018

The issues for registered caregivers only begins on September 15, 2018. All State licensed facilities that will continue to be open and operating can not buy any kind of product from caregivers. State Licensed Provisioning Centers, but statute and administrative rules are strictly forbidden from getting or selling any type of item that is not created by a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor that has had their item tested and certified by a State Licensed Safety Compliance Facility. Any State Licensed Provisioning Center that is discovered to have product for sale that is not from a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor is subject to State sanctions on their license, including temporary or permanent retraction of the license. Given the danger, licensed facilities are very unlikely to run the risk of buying from a caregiver, provided the prospective consequences.

Additionally, the unlicensed facilities to whom caregivers have been continuing to offer to, even throughout the licensing procedure, will be closing down. Some may continue to operate, but given the State's stance on centers that do not abide by their cease and desist letters being looked at very adversely in the licensing process, the market will be drastically diminished, if not eliminated. As a result, caregivers will not have much option for offering their excess, as well as will be limited only to their present clients.

New Administrative Rules

A hearing will be held on September 17, 2018 relating to the new suggested 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 home delivery by a provisioning center, and will also permit regulated online buying. Those 2 things eliminate much of the function contemplated by caregivers under the new regulations. Clients would certainly still require them to go to the provisioning center to grab and deliver marijuana to clients that were too ill or who were impaired and could not get to those licensed centers to acquire their medicinal cannabis. With this change to the administrative rules, such clients will no longer need a caregiver. They will have the ability to place an order online and have the provisioning facility deliver it to them, essentially eliminating the need of a caregiver.

Verdict

For better or worse, the State is doing everything it can to get rid of caregivers under the brand-new administrative plan, even before the planned removal 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 doing away with the caregiver , and they are moving that process along with celerity. The State is sending the message that they want caregivers out of the market as soon as possible, and they are establishing policies to make certain that happens sooner rather than later. The caregiver model, while beneficial 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 thrived in the past, won't make it to see the brand-new legalized era.

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