Pubdate: Thu, 17 Sep 2015
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2015 Tucson Weekly
Contact:  http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: Katie Campbell

  News21: America's Weed Rush

MEDICAL MARIJUANA CAREGIVERS NOT INSPECTED, COULD FEED ILLEGAL MARKETS

Jake Holmes' property is hidden in the dense woods on a stretch of 
rolling hills in Monroe, Maine, where dirt roads seem to go nowhere 
and GPS devices are useless.

"We're working behind the house"-that's the last hint before the cell 
service goes out. And then, there they are: a bright red pair of 
heavy-duty gardening gloves sitting on the raised flag of a mailbox, 
the sign that this is where he lives and works.

Right on cue, Holmes walks out from behind his house with a shovel in 
his hands, the smell of fresh dirt and marijuana lingering in the 
air. Holmes is a medical marijuana caregiver-just one among tens of 
thousands of people across the country who can legally possess, 
cultivate and supply medical marijuana to qualified patients.

Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical 
marijuana. Yet in the nearly two decades since California first took 
the step in 1996, consensus has not been reached on how best to run a 
medical marijuana program, and regulators have been left to experiment.

In an environment of conflicting medical marijuana laws across the 
country, caregivers operate almost entirely without government 
oversight, according to a News21 analysis of laws in the 23 states.

State regulators acknowledge that this lack of oversight could and 
does encourage the illegal sale of marijuana by caregivers to people 
who may or may not hold a medical marijuana card.

No one regularly or even periodically inspects caregivers' grow sites 
to ensure they are not cultivating more plants than legally is 
allowed. States also do not check on caregivers who don't grow 
themselves, but are authorized to administer marijuana to permitted 
patients, according to the News21 analysis.

This means no one knows how much marijuana is being grown or given by 
medical marijuana caregivers across the country.

"I have no idea," said Tom Salow, branch chief of licensing under the 
Arizona Department of Health Services. "We don't regulate how many 
plants are getting cultivated by caregivers."

"The state has little authority over caregivers," said Colorado 
Medical Marijuana Program Manager Natalie Riggins.

"I don't think there's anyone checking up on caregivers," said Andrew 
Jessen, a research analyst with the Alaska Bureau of Vital 
Statistics. "There is no agency that's monitoring how many plants 
caregivers have."

"The vast majority of caregivers in our state are compliant," said 
Kenneth Albert, director of Maine's Division of Licensing and 
Regulatory Services, which houses the Maine Medical Marijuana 
Program. "But there are those who have sought to use the Medical 
Marijuana Act to a much greater gain."

Far from the hills where Holmes' medical marijuana is maturing, 
Albert's health department office looks out onto a view of the 
Kennebec River as it cuts through the capital city of Augusta.

His main concern is not with how many plants Holmes and other 
caregivers are cultivating, but with the quality and safety of the 
product they provide. He wants to know medical marijuana is free of 
illegal pesticides and other harmful substances. Yet the quantity, 
not the quality, of Maine's medical marijuana has the attention of 
other authorities, such as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 
Albert said.

"The majority of New England states are now medical marijuana 
states," he said. "I believe it's perceived by the federal government 
as a source of black market-diverted marijuana to the eastern seaboard."

Albert acknowledged caregivers might be selling marijuana illegally 
to people not registered in the program or other caregivers. Some 
caregivers concede part of the problem in Maine and elsewhere has 
been the hurried creation of state regulations.

Devin Noonan came to Maine from San Francisco, where he cultivated 
plants inside a grow tent in a bedroom. The high rent in California 
didn't seem worth it, so he traded his cramped apartment for a 
spacious home hidden by tightly packed trees and brush.

His marijuana grows up to 6-feet tall in the greenhouse Noonan built. 
Other plants sit under purple LED lights in his living room until 
they reach maturity. A total of 72 plants support Noonan's company, 
Dirigo Royale; six for each of his five patients, six more for 
himself and six more each for his girlfriend's five patients and herself.

Caregivers in Maine are not inspected unless a complaint is made, 
according to Albert. To pursue a complaint, the Department of Health 
and Human Services contracts with investigators (typically retired 
police officers) through the Maine Sheriffs' Association to conduct 
what Noonan called "knock-and-talks." The investigators are sent to 
caregivers' grow sites and homes to determine whether they are 
compliant with the law.

Investigators do not have the authority to issue citations, 
confiscate plants or revoke a caregiver's registration. They can only 
recommend further law enforcement action.

Just about 150 miles away in Massachusetts, another set of New 
England caregivers cultivate under a very different set of rules.

Massachusetts caregivers and patients are allowed to practice 
"hardship cultivation," which permits growing at home in cases of 
financial hardship or if they cannot reach a dispensary due to 
limited mobility or unreasonable distance.

Registrations for up to 35 dispensaries were to be issued between 
Jan. 1, 2013, when the medical marijuana law went into effect, and 
Jan. 1, 2014. Only one dispensary has been approved and is operational.

This means most Massachusetts patients still cultivate on their own 
or through caregivers.

The state's law allows each patient or caregiver to possess a 60-day 
supply of prepared marijuana, which is set at about 10 ounces. The 
amount can be increased or decreased based on a physician's 
recommendation. However, the law's language is unclear on how many 
plants are permissible to provide that supply.

"Basically, it's unregulated," said Justin Simone, a caregiver in 
Pepperell. "It's chaos. You don't know what's going on."

Simone cultivates for himself and his uncle. One small plant stands 
at about three inches tall in a blue bucket of soil; it's bushier 
than it is tall. Without dispensaries to make up for his lack of 
supply, he admits that he and others have resorted to illegal means 
of obtaining marijuana.

People need their medicine now, and they're still not getting it," he 
said. "And if they are, they're getting it on the black market. 
That's the only way."

But even states with active dispensaries have had regulatory issues. 
Arizona has been trying to create a balanced system since medical 
marijuana was legalized in 2010.

Ninety-one dispensaries have been approved for operation in the state 
since 2012. Home cultivation now is permitted only for patients who 
live 25 miles away from the nearest dispensary. Caregivers can take 
on up to five patients and cultivate for those who meet the 
more-than-25-mile requirement. Twelve plants are permitted per 
patient with a maximum of 72 allowed at one time, including 12 for 
caregivers if they qualify as a patient.

Caregivers who cannot cultivate legally are able to obtain marijuana 
from a dispensary. The number of registered caregivers has decreased 
from more than 1,000 to about 500 since dispensaries opened, said Tom 
Salow of the Arizona Department of Health Services.

"The cultivation that occurs at residential places for patients or 
caregivers that are authorized to cultivate-we don't inspect those 
sites," Salow said. "If they're not operating under the protections 
of the Medical Marijuana Act, they might be subject to criminal consequences."

Salow said his department's priority is implementing what Arizona 
voters wanted. "We think we're doing that in a responsible manner."

Even in Colorado, where recreational marijuana is legal and readily 
available, the lack of effective regulations for caregivers has made 
it easier to sell illegally.

"The caregivers are the least regulated part of the entire spectrum," 
said Jim Gerhardt, the vice president of the Colorado Drug 
Investigators Association, a private nonprofit organization of 
narcotics officers. "So, they've always historically been one of the 
biggest contributors to the black market here."

Colorado limits each caregiver to five patients, but caregivers can 
obtain a waiver from the state Department of Public Health and 
Environment to take on additional patients. Gerhardt said officers 
have no way of knowing who has those waivers.

"If we encounter someone who's got a car load of pot that they're 
driving around town, and they say, 'Well, I've got 700 patients' or 
whatever, there's not even a way to really determine that," Gerhardt said.

"People were starting to stick their medical marijuana cards in our 
face anytime we would encounter them with any amount of pot, and we 
did start to find people that were kind of taking advantage of the 
situation. We did believe they were selling, but it was hard to 
really prove it because they had these caregiver permissions and all that."

But without consistent regulation of home grows by caregivers, 
medical marijuana programs are left to guess at the extent of the 
black-market problem.

"We're seeing all kinds of collateral problems," Gerhardt said. "Does 
that sound like medicine? Does this sound like the way a civilized 
country dispenses medical products to people? Far from it."

The caregiver industry hasn't been particularly lucrative for Maine's 
Jake Holmes, who shares an old white house with his business partner. 
The backyard is taken up almost entirely by a mound of fresh black 
soil and rows of planters made from fabric and wire fencing held up 
by wooden stakes. The planters are empty for now. Holmes' seedlings 
are growing slowly in red cups in his spare bedroom, but still too 
small and delicate to go outside.

"Maine has a lot of veterans and a lot of people who have problems 
with an addiction," he said. "So being a caregiver is just a way that 
I saw I could personally make a difference in the community-by 
helping people fight that sort of thing.

"To be really successful at managing the business and helping 
patients and producing a superior quality medicine for them, that is 
a long road to walk. Not many people make it."

News21 journalist Jessie Wardarski contributed to this article.

This is from a continuing series from America's Weed Rush, an 
investigation of marijuana legalization in America, a 2015 project of 
the Carnegie-Knight News21 program produced by the nation's top 
journalism students and graduates.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom