After September 15, Can I Still be a Caregiver?

The Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation is standing firm on their stance that all cannabis facilities that are not licensed by the State under the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, will need to shut down, and will receive 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 explained that any center that continues to operate after receipt of the cease and desist will likely not be given a license. Additionally, the State has set forth recommended Final Rules concerning Medical Marihuana Facilities licensing, which is going to permit or registered qualifying patients to receive house shipments from provisioning centers (with limitation, certainly) and also will likewise permit online purchasing. So, where does that leave registered caregivers, who were anticipating to be able to continue to be relevant to their patients until 2021?

Traditional

The old model for registered caregivers was quite simple. You were enabled to grow up to twelve plants for each client. You could have five patients, aside from yourself. If the caregiver was also a patient, they could also grow twelve plants for personal usage as well. So, a caregiver could cultivate an overall of seventy-two marihuana plants. A lot of caregivers created far more usable marihuana from those plants than they could use for patients and personal usage. 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 not obtained a State license were allowed to proceed operating and buying from registered caregivers. Those facilities were permitted to get caregiver excess for thirty days after obtaining their State license for stock. That meant significant revenues for caregivers and 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 remain open and operating can not buy any product from caregivers. State Licensed Provisioning Centers, but statute and administrative rules are strictly forbidden from purchasing or selling any kind of product that is not generated by a State Licensed Grower 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 for sale that is not from a State Licensed Cultivator or Processor is subject to State sanctions on their license, consisting of short-term or irreversible revocation of the license. Given the danger, licensed facilities are really unlikely to take the chance of buying from a caregiver, provided the possible effects.

Even more, the unlicensed centers to whom caregivers have been continuing to offer to, even during the licensing procedure, will certainly be closing down. Some might continue to run, 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 be significantly reduced, if not eliminated. Therefore, caregivers will not have much choice for marketing their overages, and also will be restricted only to their existing 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 stop being effective. Those final proposed administrative rules permit home delivery by a provisioning center, and will likewise allow controlled online buying. Those two things remove much of the function contemplated by caregivers under the new guidelines. Clients would still require them to go to the provisioning facility to grab and deliver marijuana to patients that were too ill or who were impaired and can not reach those licensed facilities to acquire their medical marijuana. With this change to the administrative rules, such clients 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 eliminating the requirement of a caregiver.

Verdict

For better or worse, the State is doing everything it can to get rid of caregivers under the new administrative scheme, even before the intended 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 eliminating the caregiver , and they are moving that process along with celerity. The State is sending the message that they desire caregivers out of the industry as soon as possible, and they are developing rules to make sure 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 legislations are evolving, and some things that have prospered in the past, will not make it to see the brand-new legalized era.

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