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Pot Progress: Maine’s post-election cannabis conundrum

10 mins read

By Donald Hutchins IV

Mixed feelings have emerged from Maine’s cannabis community since the state’s legalization of recreational marijuana this year, following the outcome of the November 2016 referendum.

State legislators continue to work to outline and implement infrastructure and a regulatory framework for a legal recreational cannabis marketplace in Maine. Following word of a possible crackdown on recreational states from the Trump Administration, the state is pressing through some 55-plus bills related to cannabis.

Because of the gap between recreational sales and recreational use, Mainer and tourist experiences with the new law have varied. The lack of infrastructure for a recreational system, and the relatively slow speed of legislative proceedings, have fostered incentives for growers and tokers alike to turn to black market services. Many growers, and especially caregivers, have been overwhelmed with messages and questions about acquiring cannabis products– both in-state and out of state.

This has created a unique situation for producers and consumers, alike. Caregivers are restricted to supplying medicinal cannabis products to their patients only, while many people without a qualifying medical condition or who cannot afford the fees for acquiring one are left without a legal marketplace. Many growers have attempted to skirt restrictions.

Recent media reports have drawn attention to “marijuana gifts,” “exchanges” and the legal limbo people are still finding themselves in. Methods of exchanging either valuable items or outright cash emerged after reform efforts in Washington D.C., Colorado, and other recreational states have led to arrests. In Maine, new “cannabis delivery services” and Craigslist posts about “free weed” with a donation or travel charge have begun to emerge. Legal sales of cannabis are not anticipated until 2018 at the earliest. Per state law, non-medical patients old than 21 years of age are allowed to possess 2.5 ounces of cannabis flower, can grow their own plants, and flower can be exchanged for nothing.

As potential recreational regulations continue to develop, the state is seeing a shift of the previously-outright illegal black market towards what David Boyer, Maine Political Director for the Marijuana Policy Project, is calling a “gray market.” Growers, caregivers, entrepreneurs and amateurs looking to cash in on a new market are utilizing an interwoven community of consumers.

Boyer worked alongside Representative Diane Russell (D – Portland) and others on the successful ballot initiative. Boyer’s life-long cannabis advocacy was married with MPP in 2013, where he’s been advocating for adult use.

“There is no reason adults should be threatened with punishment for using or possessing marijuana,” Boyer said, noting that the legislature could be moving faster towards full implementation. Boyer hopes not to see substantive changes to their measure “like raising taxes or doing away with social clubs.”

Hillary Lister, a political advocate involved with improving local- and state-level cannabis laws, noted two particular measures of recent interest that impact cannabis users in Maine. LD 514, An Act to Authorize the Expungement of Records of Nonviolent Crimes, which Lister says “could allow people convicted of crimes related to… cannabis to petition the court to have their records expunged.” LD 1202, An Act to Clear a Path to Employment is another bill she cited, which could benefit those with cannabis-related offenses.

Lister has been active in the cannabis community since 2009, when three of her friends all fell victim to cancer over the winter. “All their lives were made immeasurably better from having access to this plant medicine,” she said. Discovering an intolerance to medical cannabis products in various medical facilities, a friend inspired her to get involved. “I started attending the Legislative Task Force meetings on implementing the newly-passed citizen’s initiative to expand the medical marijuana laws that had been in place since 1999,” she said, and she’s been actively involved ever since.

Lister notes that cannabis keeps the local economy thriving off the land, and doesn’t promote “dependency on pharmaceutical pills that have more negative than positive effects.” Maine’s medical cannabis laws, Lister says, “are among the very best in terms of protections of personal privacy, local control, and ability for people to affordably and safely grow, process, and access quality cannabis.”

Though, she also notes, there’s still plenty to be done. A big worry with new regulations is the formation of a “pay to play” licensing system, where startup costs are almost prohibitively high– upwards of $100,000. “There is constant pressure on lawmakers and regulators to create new laws placing big business in control of the cannabis industry,” she said. She has remained engaged “researching the ways that certain entities seek to manipulate laws and regulations in a way that will guarantee them government contracts and limited high value licenses.” These can stamp out competition in what she termed a “multi-billion dollar East Coast market.”

“They need to figure out what’s going on before people get arrested for it, really,” said Kenny Chronic, owner of Chronic Extracts Labs, who has been processing material into medicine for caregiver’s patients for a little more than two years. Chronic saw considerable forgoing of reading the details of the legalization effort, which led people to misjudge what was being offered to them. “A lot of people under 21 had no idea what was coming,” he said. “They thought ‘oh, I’ll be able to smoke free.’ Nope.” Many supporters on college campuses found out after the election that a state-level law wouldn’t impact federal regulations that are used to dictate campus policies.

“As soon as it became recreational it was about [special interests] trying to make their money.” Chronic continued. “[Special interests] wanted their piece of the pie. The permits and everything are crazy money.” With the absence of recreational infrastructure, and the inevitable expansion of the new gray markets, Chronic and other are seeing people of all types from near and far that want to get in on the scene, when the only legal one is medical. “It’s definitely wild west right now,” he said.

Other members of the community are worried about the impacts the new regulatory system will have on the little guy. Roger Murphy, caregiver at Good Vibes Farm, feels that mixed communication in the laws promote further disarray in already shaky situations. “Everyone thinks they can just throw a seed in the ground and grow something and that’s not how it is,” he said. Medicinal cannabis operations involve very delicate processes in order to produce medicine, while recreational operations could vary.

“People are selling uncured medicine– people selling medicine that isn’t up to its potential,” Murphy said. “That needs to change, people need to be educated.”

Murphy, Chronic, and others have noted an influx in poor technique and low-quality produce being employed to meet increased demand. “People are just trying to make money, to resell.” Murphy, and others in the medical community, worry that recreational guidelines may cohere with medical guidelines at the expense of patients and caregivers.

“It’s going towards big business – it’s not for the people anymore, it’s just control”, Murphy said. “They have the money to do it, and they’re writing the laws for themselves.”

This has driven the medical community to be a part of the law-making process. Lister mentioned that “in Maine, regular people have a much greater ability to effectively communicate with local and state lawmakers than in most states.”

“Write letters to your senators and get involved in the politics,” Murphy said to those interested in getting involved.

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11 Comments

  1. Just watch corporate America screw this up. The same vultures who have always been vehemently against it are now salivating.

  2. Summary: Scared, ignorant Baby Boomers continue to clutch bottles of Maker’s Mark and scream angrily into the winds of progress.

  3. C. Until the applicant provides proof acceptable to the commissioner that the applicant has financial resources under its control and can establish and maintain an escrow account in a financial institution in this State or provides a letter of credit drawn from a financial institution in this State or a surety bond issued by a surety company licensed by this State that is of a capacity and rating acceptable to the commissioner in the secured amount applicable to the type of license being applied for, as follows:
    (1) For a retail marijuana store, $500,000;

    (2) For a retail marijuana cultivation facility with 3,000 square feet or less of plant canopy, $600,000;

    (3) For a retail marijuana cultivation facility with more than 3,000 square feet of plant canopy, $1,100,000;

    (4) For a retail marijuana products manufacturing facility, $600,000;

    (5) For a retail marijuana testing facility, $800,000 unless the applicant is accredited pursuant to standard ISO/IEC 17025 of the International Organization for Standardization by a 3rd-party accrediting body or is certified, registered or accredited by an organization approved by the department; and

    (6) For a retail marijuana social club, $500,000; and

    D. Until the applicant has provided the department with a budget calculating funds the applicant has estimated necessary to start its operation and for one year of operation, showing at a minimum:
    (1) All salaries and related benefits with assumptions of the number of full-time employees and levels of salary of those employees;

    (2) All facility-related expenses, including one year of rent, maintenance and related expenses, capital improvements and taxes;

    (3) All fee payments related to the license being applied for, including sales tax;

  4. Augusta is full of liberals, Portland is full of snowflakes and southern Maine has an abundent supply of the left leaning drug users. Why can’t they get a simple plan in place to allow distribution and use of weed. Sell it like alcohol, tax it on a per sale basis like cigarettes and use liquor license styled regulations for social clubs. The infrastructure is already in place, no need to reinvent the wheel on this project. Unless of course, the liberals are completely inept or being a little to greedy. Colorado, considerably larger than Maine, doesn’t seem o be having any difficulty, so what’s up with Maine.

  5. If they had done there job the first time around this wouldn’t be an issue. The people voted it in and now they want to mess everything up.

  6. Have you never been to a concert, festival, or other outdoor event where a large group of people congregate? People leave trash everywhere. It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that they smoke pot. Some people litter. Some people don’t. Why do people feel the need to demonize others who use cannabis??

  7. Marijuana prohibition is as expensive, wasteful, and harmful to this country as alcohol prohibition was, and alcohol kills more people (users and non-users) in a year than marijuana EVER will! And I don’t “use” it, don’t want to, and have never/will never derive any financial benefit from it or legalization.

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