Pubdate: Tue, 03 May 2016
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2016 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Authors: Kay Lazar and Dan Adams

LITTLE OVERSIGHT, LOTS OF SUCCESS FOR MARIJUANA DELIVERY SERVICES

One delivery service offers gluten-free marijuana brownies. Another 
promises a free marijuana-laced lollipop with each order. A third 
touts trained "caregivers" and delivery until 4 a.m.

These marijuana delivery services - the objects of an unsuccessful 
crackdown by Massachusetts health officials two years ago - were 
expected to fade away once the first state-sanctioned medical 
marijuana dispensaries opened last year. Instead, they have proliferated.

More than two dozen of these Internet-based services are now openly 
advertising long menus of marijuana strains and edibles, plus prices 
and user reviews, the Globe found.

The cat-and-mouse dance between the services and regulators 
intensified last week when the popular website Leafly, which features 
marijuana news and product reviews, abruptly removed online listings 
for more than 20 Massachusetts delivery services after patient 
advocates and the Globe questioned their legality.

Unlike dispensaries - whose owners must pay hefty licensing fees, 
submit to background checks, and test their products for contaminants 
- - delivery services operate without oversight. They call themselves 
caregivers, a designation they say allows them to supply patients.

This booming cottage industry uses the Internet to offer on-demand 
delivery to anyone who shows a state-issued marijuana card. But in 
online discussion forums, several customers claimed to have used fake 
medical recommendations printed from the Internet to have marijuana 
delivered by the services.

Operators say they are exempt from Massachusetts rules that prohibit 
caregivers from supplying more than one patient at a time and that 
limit their compensation. State officials strongly disagree, saying 
only registered dispensaries can sell marijuana.

Leaders of Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, a group 
representing medical marijuana patients, said they were troubled by 
complaints from patients about subpar products and tense encounters 
with gun-toting drivers. Earlier this year, the advocates urged 
Department of Public Health officials to rein in the delivery 
outfits, but said they were largely ignored.

On Thursday, health officials took another tentative step toward 
enforcement, telling Leafly the delivery services listed on its site 
were operating illegally.

"Caregivers cannot sell marijuana or profit from its distribution," 
the health agency said in a statement. "Anyone distributing marijuana 
outside of state regulations may be subject to law enforcement action."

Before learning of the department's stance, Leafly had argued that 
Massachusetts law permits "personal care attendants" to deliver 
marijuana to registered patients. The Seattle company, which calls 
itself "the world's largest cannabis information resource" and says 
that millions use its app and website, later suspended the listings. 
But it questioned whether delivery services are really banned under 
state rules.

"Leafly is still seeking further clarification," the company said in 
a statement. "The [department's] response did not provide guidance 
beyond what was already published on [its] website."

Patient advocates attribute the continued popularity of the delivery 
services in part to supply problems that patients say they encounter 
at some of the state's six dispensaries. Delivery services also help 
patients with disabilities and patients who are too ill to travel to 
dispensaries.

High prices at dispensaries present another issue. Some delivery 
services sell marijuana for $100 an ounce less than the dispensaries 
do, according to menus the delivery services publish online.

But patient advocates acknowledge they face a quandary. While worried 
that patients using delivery services may be vulnerable to theft and 
questionable products, advocates also want increased access to marijuana.

"We want the delivery people to be licensed and funneled through the 
proper channels," said Nichole Snow, executive director of the 
Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance.

She said the state's registration system is too cumbersome for some 
patients to use, and there aren't enough licensed dispensaries to 
meet demand. She pointed to health department data showing that while 
22,500 patients have registered with the agency's medical marijuana 
program, fewer than 9,000 have shopped in dispensaries. That means 
most are getting their marijuana elsewhere - on the street, from 
legitimate caregivers, or through the delivery services.

A state health department spokesman said the agency is aware of 
patients' concerns.

Leafly did not respond to questions about how - or if - it vetted the 
delivery services that had been advertising on its site. The same 
delivery outfits are still listed on similar websites.

A spokeswoman said Leafly's removal of the services last week sparked 
a backlash from customers.

"Leafly has been contacted by dozens of patients who are extremely 
upset and concerned about how they are going to access their 
medicine," the spokeswoman wrote. "Many of these patients are elderly 
or disabled."

At the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center last month, a 
delivery outfit calling itself Boston Best Buds, which advertised on 
Leafly, set up a booth as part of the New England Cannabis 
Convention. A man who would give his name only as Ray invited anyone 
who claimed to have a state-issued medical marijuana card to enter a 
raffle for a free ounce of marijuana.

When a reporter asked Ray if his service was legal, he initially said 
it was. But when pressed, he conceded it was a "gray area."

"Are we an unregulated service? Absolutely!" Ray said. "Does the 
state need to add regulations? One hundred and ten percent yes. 
There's nothing I would love more than to be completely within the system."

Ray boasted that at $280 an ounce, his marijuana was selling for 
substantially less than at the dispensaries. And, he said, Boston 
Best Buds offers a far greater variety of strains.

Ray said he initially delivered the marijuana himself, but now 
employs two drivers whom he pays $20 per delivery. He said he gets 
his inventory from "small gardens in [patients'] houses, guys growing 
in their closet, growing in their old kid's [empty] room, stuff like that."

He referred further questions to his lawyer, abruptly packed up his 
booth, and left the convention center.

"What Ray's doing isn't necessarily within the confines of the law at 
the moment, but that may very well change in short order," Rudolph 
Miller, Ray's attorney, said in a phone interview later. "It's a 
newly developing landscape that's subject to a great deal of interpretation."

Miller declined to provide Ray's last name but insisted Ray was 
"trying to be as transparent as possible."

"He attends hearings at the State House, trying to get what he does 
recognized," Miller said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom