After September 15, Can I Still be a Caregiver?

The Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation is persevering on their position that all cannabis 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 centers are not mandated to close down, the State Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs has explained that any center that continues to run after receipt of the cease and desist will most likely not be given a license. Further, the State has set forth recommended Final Rules regarding Medical Marihuana Facilities licensing, which is going to allow or registered qualifying patients to receive home shipments from provisioning centers (with limitation, certainly) as well as will likewise permit 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 quite straightforward. You were allowed to cultivate up to twelve plants for each patient. You could have five patients, other than yourself. If the caregiver was also a client, they could additionally grow twelve plants for personal use too. 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 patients and individual usage. The caregivers would then sell their excess product to medical marihuana dispensaries.

Under the emergency rules, marihuana dispensaries that were running with municipal authorization, but that had actually not gotten a State license were allowed to continue operating and also buying from registered caregivers. Those centers were permitted to buy caregiver overages for thirty days after receiving their State license for supply. That implied considerable earnings for caregivers as well as 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 continue to be open and operating can not buy any type of product from caregivers. State Licensed Provisioning Centers, but statute and administrative rules are strictly prohibited from purchasing or selling any type of product that is not produced by a State Licensed Cultivator 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 available for sale that is not from a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor is subject to State sanctions on their license, including temporary or permanent cancellation of the license. Given the threat, licensed facilities are extremely unlikely to risk purchasing from a caregiver, offered the potential consequences.

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

New Administrative Rules

A hearing will be held on September 17, 2018 relating to the brand-new recommended final administrative rules for the regulation of medical marihuana facilities, which will become effective in November, when the emergency rules stop being effective. Those final proposed administrative rules permit house delivery by a provisioning center, and will likewise allow regulated online purchasing. Those 2 things eliminate much of the function contemplated by caregivers under the new guidelines. Patients would still need them to head to the provisioning center to grab and deliver marijuana to patients that were too unwell or that were handicapped and could not get to those licensed facilities to obtain their medical cannabis. With this change 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 center deliver it to them, essentially getting rid of the need of a caregiver.

Conclusion

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 reasons the State could be doing it, but that is of little comfort to caregivers. The bottom line is, the State is getting rid of the caregiver model, and they are moving that process along with celerity. The State is sending the message that they want caregivers out of the market immediately, and they are establishing rules to make sure that happens sooner rather than later. The caregiver model, while helpful and necessary 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 prospered in the past, won't make it to see the brand-new legalized era.

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