Pubdate: Wed, 10 Sep 2014
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2014 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Erin Cox
Page: 2

MARIJUANA PANEL REVISES RULES

New Draft Regulations Expected Today, but Some Details Remain

A state panel on Tuesday hashed out more of the nitty-gritty details 
to create a medical marijuana industry from scratch, but some key 
points remained unresolved as the commission nears a deadline next week.

Maryland's Medical Marijuana Commission plans to release today a 
second draft of regulations to create the program. Those 81-pages of 
rules have been reshaped after the first draft came under fire at a 
public hearing last month.

Among the many changes in the new draft: removing a provision that 
would have effectively outlawed a grower or dispensary operation 
within Baltimore city limits.

The panel also decided to create a digital registry of medical 
marijuana patients to help ensure that the drug is distributed only 
to eligible customers.

It also tweaked the rules about how patients with post-traumatic 
stress disorder can get access to the drug.

Missing from the revisions, however, are details about how much 
patients and distributors would pay to take part in the program.

The legislature passed a medical marijuana law this year that allows 
for up to 15 growers and about 100 dispensaries across the state.

It is up to the medical marijuana commission to decide how to 
implement the law.

The commission has a Monday deadline to prepare regulations, which 
will be sent to state Health Secretary Dr. Joshua Sharfstein for 
review and then to a legislative panel.

Sharon Bloom, acting executive director of the commission, said that 
choosing to publish a draft today effectively meets next week's deadline.

Baltimore County Del. Dan Morhaim, a Democrat and longtime advocate 
for medical marijuana, disagreed.

Morhaim has criticized the commission for working behind closed 
doors, and said Tuesday that failing to finish the regulations by 
Monday delays the entire program.

"Every delay means that there is a needy or suffering patient who is 
not getting treatment. Every day is another day that someone is 
denied pain relief," said Morhaim, the only physician in the Maryland 
General Assembly.

"Had the commission engaged the public sooner, they wouldn't be this 
late in the process. And as they all recognized, when they finally 
allowed the public to participate and make comments, a lot of the 
comments made sense."

The commission's newest set of rules also suggests that patients 
would be limited to 120 grams of marijuana a month, which translates 
to about 4.5 marijuana cigarettes per day, committee members said 
during a public meeting Tuesday in Annapolis.

Patients whose conditions warrant a larger dose would be able to seek 
a waiver, but committee members said the limit represented a middle 
ground between states that allow more and those that allow less.

"For some patients this sounds like an enormous amount. For others, 
this will not be nearly enough," said Eric Sterling, an attorney and 
commission member.

The commission plans to meet again in two weeks to decide how much to 
charge qualifying patients for the ID cards necessary to obtain the 
drug, as well as how much to charge growers and dispensers to obtain 
one of the state's licenses.

Committee members said they wanted the fees to reflect the cost of 
overseeing the program, and they needed to wait to get a final budget 
before setting fees.

No further public hearings are expected.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom