Pubdate: Tue, 14 Aug 2012
Source: Portland Daily Sun (ME)
Copyright: 2012 The Portland Daily Sun
Contact:  http://portlanddailysun.me/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5257
Author: David Carkhuff

STATE'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA RULEMAKING COMES UNDER FIRE

A legislator who championed amendments to Maine's medical marijuana 
law as a way to bring it in line with voter intent said she hopes the 
state doesn't make the same mistakes again.

After a public hearing Monday on a controversial rule making that's 
now underway, Rep. Deb Sanderson, R-Chelsea, said the state should 
not implement rules that are more restrictive and divergent from the 
intent of the citizen's initiative legalizing medical marijuana passed in 2009.

"Hopefully the department will take into serious consideration much 
of the compelling testimony that was put before them," Sanderson said 
Tuesday, a day after a hearing in Augusta where a crowd testified 
about proposed rules regulating medical marijuana.

Republican Reps. Heather Sirocki of Scarborough and Sanderson, along 
with Democratic Rep. Mark Dion, have called for a group of 
stakeholders to meet and develop rules that would follow the intent 
of Maine's medical marijuana law. This isn't the first time 
legislators have steered the law back to its original intent, Sanderson said.

"We've been here before," she said.

The goal now is for state officials to sit down with stakeholders, 
"folks that are in the industry, patients, physicians," Sanderson 
said, "so when the rules do come out in their final form, they're a 
clear reflection of the intent of the legislation."

Concerns with the proposed rules were raised at a public hearing on 
Monday by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and its 
Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, which manages the 
Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Program.

The Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services will accept written 
comment on the marijuana rule changes until Thursday, Aug. 23.

"Over 175 people packed the State House on Monday to express 
discontent, grief and sometimes anger with proposed restrictions on 
the ability of patients and caregivers to legally cultivate medical 
marijuana," reported Hillary Lister, an advocate for medical 
marijuana use in Maine.

In a statement, Lister said the proposed rules "would severely 
restrict the ability of patients to legally cultivate their medicine 
outdoors. Cultivation would not be allowed

within 25 feet of any property boundary, and plants would be required 
to be enclosed by an 8 foot privacy fence, with motion sensitive 
lighting. The site would have to be at residence where the grower is 
living, and the department could require unspecified 'other security 
measures' at any time."

Sanderson, the sponsor of Maine's 2011 Medical Marijuana bill, LD 
1296, said the example of the 8-foot fence illustrated problems with 
the proposed rules.

"Let's be realistic, most fences that we purchase are 6 feet 
standard. We're talking about patients that want to cultivate their 
own because they can't afford to go to a dispensary," and purchase of 
a special-order fence would be an extra financial burden, she said.

Lister said the proposed rules would also create "major substantive 
changes to Maine's medical marijuana law by adding classes of Maine 
patients prohibited from cultivating for themselves, including those 
who are homeless, in hospice, or legally defined as incapacitated."

Dr. Dustin Sulak, medical director at Maine Integrative Healthcare 
based in Hallowell and Falmouth, told DHHS many of the rules may 
bring unintended consequences.

Sulak questioned many of the specific regulations proposed, including 
the 8-foot fence, security lights, and perhaps, "other security 
measures required by the department," and wondered if they will 
"actually increase the risk of medical marijuana-related crime."

"For example, in a neighborhood with no fences higher then 6 feet, an 
8-foot fence would stand out like a target," Sulak said. 
"Additionally, erecting such a fence would likely be cost prohibitive 
to many patients. Requiring such a fence be at least 25 feet from 
property boundary lines would likely discriminate against patients 
with small lots. Security lights may interrupt the flowering cycle of 
cannabis plants that require periods of darkness and compromise the 
quality of the medicine."

Sulak said Maine Integrative Healthcar cares for thousands of 
patients, most of whom are certified under state guidelines for the 
medical use of cannabis, and he said he has petitioned for the 
addition of other debilitating conditions for treatment by medical marijuana.

Efforts to contact the DHHS Division of Licensing and Regulatory 
Services for comment were unsuccessful.

For more information about the rulemaking, visit http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/dlrs
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom