Perhaps learning from past missteps, state health officials have issued an emergency rule outlining the application process for medical-marijuana vendors seeking to receive licenses in two weeks.
The new rule, which went into effect Wednesday, outsources the evaluation of the applications to outside experts, requires “blind testing” of the applications and includes a detailed application form. Those are all departures from the Department of Health’s previous medical-marijuana regulations that spawned a series of legal and administrative challenges.
After voters last fall approved a constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana for potentially hundreds of thousands of patients with debilitating conditions, the Legislature passed a law during a June special session requiring health officials to issue 10 new medical marijuana treatment center licenses.
The law gave health officials until August 3 to issue some of the new licenses, and until Oct. 3 to select five more. More licenses must be issued once the number of patients in a statewide registry — now at 37,830 — reaches 100,000.
Whether the agency will meet next month’s deadline is questionable.
“The goal is still Oct. 3,” Department of Health spokeswoman Mara Gambineri said in an email Wednesday.
But industry insiders remained skeptical.
“It’s not just unlikely. It is literally impossible,” said Ben Pollara, who was instrumental in the passage of the constitutional amendment and who represents a coalition of medical marijuana businesses.
The agency is hiring a contractor to supply the experts responsible for scoring the applications. Health officials have not yet said when they will begin accepting applications or when the deadline for submissions will be.
State lawmakers first legalized non-euphoric medical marijuana in 2014, authorizing five nurseries to grow, process and distribute the cannabis products for patients with severe epilepsy, muscle spasms or cancer. But implementation of the law was delayed due to legal and administrative challenges.
Because of administrative challenges, the Department of Health issued two additional licenses to the five spelled out in the 2014 law. After the Legislature in June passed the new law to carry out the constitutional amendment, the total number of medical marijuana vendors in the state is up to 12.
But the upcoming licenses will be the first time the state has opened up the application process to businesses that did not participate in the first selection process in 2015, creating intense interest in what could potentially be one of the most lucrative medical-marijuana markets in the nation.
Under the 2015 process, a three-member panel — comprised of Christian Bax, the head of what is now called the Office of Medical Marijuana Use; his predecessor, Patricia Nelson; and a health department accountant — scored applications of nearly two-dozen potential vendors.
The new process leaves the scoring to 16 “subject matter experts” in areas including cultivation, processing, dispensing, compliance and finance.
credit:420intel.com
