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 shut 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 very likely not be granted a license. Additionally, the State has stated proposed Final Rules regarding Medical Marihuana Facilities licensing, which is going to enable or registered qualifying clients to receive home deliveries from provisioning centers (with limitation, certainly) and will certainly also allow online buying. So, where does that leave registered caregivers, who were expecting to be able to remain relevant to their patients up until 2021?

Traditional Model

The old for registered caregivers was pretty easy. You were allowed to grow up to twelve plants for each client. You could have 5 patients, besides yourself. If the caregiver was also a patient, they could also cultivate twelve plants for individual usage also. So, a caregiver could grow a total of seventy-two marihuana plants. Many caregivers generated far more usable marihuana from those plants than they could use 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 running and also purchasing from registered caregivers. Those centers were permitted to acquire caregiver excess for thirty days after receiving their State license for stock. That suggested considerable profits for caregivers and also 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 remain 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 buying or offering any type of item that is not generated 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 found to have product available that is not from a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor is subject to State sanctions on their license, consisting of short-term or irreversible abrogation of the license. Given the threat, licensed facilities are very unlikely to risk buying from a caregiver, offered the potential consequences.

Better, the unlicensed facilities to whom caregivers have been continuing to offer to, even throughout the licensing procedure, will certainly be closing down. Some may continue to operate, but given the State's stance on facilities that do not adhere to their cease and desist letters being looked at very unfavorably in the licensing process, the market will certainly be seriously lessened, if not eliminated. Because of this, caregivers will certainly not have much recourse for marketing their overages, and will be limited only to their present patients.

New Administrative Rules

A hearing will be held on September 17, 2018 pertaining to the brand-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 enable house delivery by a provisioning center, and will also permit managed online buying. Those 2 things eliminate much of the role contemplated by caregivers under the brand-new rules. Clients would certainly still require them to head to the provisioning facility to get and deliver marijuana to clients that were too unwell or that were disabled and can not reach those licensed centers to obtain their medicinal marijuana. With this adjustment to the administrative rules, such clients will no longer need a caregiver. They will be able to place an order online and have the provisioning facility deliver it to them, basically eliminating the need 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 plan, even prior to the planned elimination 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 model, and they are moving that process along with celerity. The State is sending the message that they want caregivers out of the marketplace immediately, and they are developing guidelines to make certain that takes place sooner rather than later. The caregiver model, while valuable and needed 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 flourished in the past, will not make it to see the new legalized era.