After September 15, Can I Still be a Caregiver?

The Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation is standing firm on their position 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 receive a cease and desist letter at that time. While the facilities are not mandated to shut down, the State Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs has explained that any facility that continues to operate after receipt of the cease and desist will most likely not be given a license. Additionally, the State has stated proposed Final Rules concerning Medical Marihuana Facilities licensing, which is going to permit or registered qualifying clients to get house shipments from provisioning centers (with restriction, of course) as well as will likewise allow online ordering. So, where does that leave registered caregivers, who were expecting to be able to stay relevant to their clients up until 2021?

Traditional

The old model for registered caregivers was pretty easy. You were enabled to cultivate up to twelve plants for each patient. You could have five patients, aside from yourself. If the caregiver was also a client, they could also grow twelve plants for individual usage as well. So, a caregiver could cultivate an overall of seventy-two marihuana plants. A lot of caregivers generated far more usable marihuana from those plants than they could use for clients and individual 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 gotten a State license were allowed to continue running as well as purchasing from registered caregivers. Those facilities were allowed to buy caregiver overages for thirty days after receiving their State license for stock. That suggested significant profits 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 centers that will continue to be open and operating can not buy any product from caregivers. State Licensed Provisioning Centers, but statute and administrative rules are strictly forbidden from acquiring or offering any item that is not produced 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 discovered to have product available for sale that is not from a State Licensed Grower or Processor is subject to State sanctions on their license, consisting of short-term or irreversible cancellation of the license. Given the danger, licensed facilities are extremely unlikely to risk buying from a caregiver, provided the potential consequences.

Additionally, the unlicensed centers to whom caregivers have been continuing to offer to, even during the licensing procedure, will be shutting down. Some might continue to run, but given the State's position on centers that do not abide by their cease and desist letters being looked at very adversely in the licensing process, the market will certainly be drastically lessened, if not eliminated. Consequently, caregivers will not have much recourse for offering their overages, as well as will be limited only to their current patients.

New Administrative Rules

A hearing will be held on September 17, 2018 relating to the new proposed 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 controlled online buying. Those two things remove much of the function contemplated by caregivers under the new regulations. Patients would certainly still need them to go to the provisioning center to grab and deliver cannabis to patients that were too unwell or that were disabled and could not reach those licensed centers to get their medical cannabis. With this modification to the administrative rules, such patients 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 eliminating the necessity of a caregiver.

Final thought

For better or worse, the State is doing everything it can to remove caregivers under the new administrative plan, even before the planned removal 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 want caregivers out of the market asap, and they are establishing guidelines to ensure that takes place sooner rather than later. The caregiver model, while advantageous and essential 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 thrived in the past, will not make it to see the new legalized era.