Maine is cracking down on how caregivers grow and distribute medical marijuana, allowing surprise inspections and implementing a plant-to-patient tracking system.
The state Department of Health and Human Services issued new rules Wednesday that tighten Maine’s fast-growing and changing medical marijuana program.
The department didn’t issue a statement on the rules, which take effect Feb. 1, and Maine’s medical marijuana community spent the day scanning the document trying to figure out which changes represent a new state policy and which ones are simply legislative housekeeping.
STATE BY STATE: Maine Cannabis News
DHHS has spent more than a year working on the new rules, which fold in laws passed by the last two legislatures, establish a system to monitor and enforce compliance actions and set requirements for patient designations, caregiver and dispensary reporting and record-keeping, and written certifications, including changes to the medical provider-patient relationship, said spokeswoman Emily Spencer.
The rule prohibits a visiting patient from another state from cultivating marijuana for medical use, requires a medical provider’s endorsement on any petition to add to the list of conditions that can be treated with marijuana, requires nursing facilities that assist a qualifying patient to have storage, use and administration policies, and tightens up the definition of a collective, Spencer said.
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