To summarize the progress of cannabis legislature in 2017, Rep. Martin Grohman, a Biddeford independent, said it best in an interview with the Press Herald.
“I feel like we legalized gasoline, but not gas stations.”
While the overall momentum seems to be lurching forward, it's doing so at an increasingly impaired pace. Much of this stems from the vetoes and moratoriums put in place by our beloved Governor LePage. Additionally, changes have already been made to the medical program in this heated political climate. It seems really unclear where this is all going.
Legislators were very clear about the fact that the advent of recreational legislation would not affect the medical cannabis program in Maine. However, recent events would lead one to believe otherwise.
Up until this point, caregivers have been allowed to give their cannabis flowers to other caregivers for processing to make added-value products like rosin, B.H.O., and edibles. This demand creates a thriving market where caregivers who are skilled at making these products can take commissions from caregivers who are more skilled at growing flowers and charge them a service fee for doing so. However, this also creates direct competition with dispensary owners, who are currently lobbying to change regulations to be more favorable for them and less favorable for caregivers.
It appears that the lobbying worked, because legislation recently changed, prohibiting caregivers from hiring labor to process flowers into added-value goods. This means that all products must be single sourced — which can be dangerous because many caregivers are not prepared to take their own products.
There is currently a moratorium on the implementation of recreational legislation until February 1. Legislators seem very doubtful that a consensus will be made in the House to overturn the veto that LePage has placed on the bill. However, if the House does come to a consensus and move to overturn the veto, the bill will be passed on to the Department of Agriculture. Although the majority of those in the marijuana industry are very happy that this regulation will be presided over by the Department of Agriculture instead of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, it's likely that LePage will continue to slow the process by stalling with his collaborators. If the bill is passed on to the Department of Agriculture, they could potentially sit on the legislation for a protracted amount of time.
Legislators who are pushing for the urgent implementation of the bill, like Roger Katz, a Republican from Augusta, suggest that delaying this process will “[drive] people to the illegal dealer on the street.” Patients in Maine know they can rely on their local caregivers. However, legislators are also aware of the enormous gray-area loopholes that are constantly taken advantage of by caregivers, including the rotating "fifth patient" slot. (Referring to a loophole that caregivers have found to get around the legal restriction of five patients.)
Given the “wild west” condition of our current cannabis market, legislators are working as quickly as they can to create a consensus.
House majority leader Ken Fredette, a Republican from Newport, pleaded with the House to extend the moratorium beyond February 1, as he insists that rulemaking will not be able to create an appropriate tax infrastructure by this date, but he was overruled. Basically, everything is in the air until February, and even then it might be as much as another year before implementation.
Basically, if you’re a caregiver in Maine and you’re trying to start a recreational business, you’ve just got to sit tight and wait — but not idly! Besides making sure that you’ve paid all of your back taxes and filed all the correct paperwork, there are still some other obstacles that will be very important for your process, and they aren’t on a federal or state level. Municipalities must approve recreational cannabis businesses by a majority vote, and the list of prohibited or “dry” municipalities is growing. Unsurprisingly, these towns are often smaller, more rural areas (which are prime locations for farming and agricultural use). The task of zoning and regulating cannabis businesses on a municipal level can be daunting; municipal fire departments will be responsible for the regulation of B.H.O. producers, which involves very complex fire code standards. Many municipal offices have very few employees, and this task could become quite laborious.
The best thing that caregivers and business owners can do is start communicating with municipal offices about cannabis businesses so that they can make the most educated and well-informed decisions possible.
For now, the medical program stands, and save for a few alterations is completely intact. The question is how long do the residents of Maine want to be in the gray area. How long do we want to encourage the criminal sale of cannabis? How long do we want to dodge the enormous tax benefits that the state will receive from this industry? These are the questions we must be asking ourselves going into 2018.
