Bill Downing: “The medical marijuana industry in Massachusetts is gravely ill. It cannot adequately serve my community.”
This week’s Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission hearing on the state’s Medical Use of Marijuana Program was a watershed event. The agency and industry face many issues, but the troubles before patients are some of the most pressing, and the action or inaction the body takes in the upcoming months will dictate med accessibility for vulnerable people statewide for years to come.
And so in addition to our wall-to-wall coverage of the consequential hearing, we are also running some of the poignant, heartfelt, and informed words of those who offered input. The following is the complete testimony of Bill Downing (click here for video). An iconic cannabis activist and CBD seller who has helped patients find safe alternative meds since long before the advent of regulated dispensaries, he offered a number of critical observations delivered with some seriously powerful statements.
I’ve been a leader in cannabis law reform since becoming president of MASSCANN/NORML in 1990. You may be familiar with the Boston Freedom Rally. I was its principal organizer from 1992 through 2018. My cannabis activism led to my business as well. Since 2013 I’ve served medical cannabis users under the brands Yankee Caregivers then CBD Please. My store in Allston was the first to offer CBD east of Mississippi.
My interest in medicinal cannabis is not only as a political activist and as a business owner, but also, as you might guess, as a medicinal cannabis user. I’ve used cannabis since 1985 to moderate symptoms of gout and arterial disease. Those interests prompt my contact.
Medical marijuana has, unfortunately, become a poor sister to the recreational marijuana wunderkind. While still breathing, the medical marijuana industry in Massachusetts is gravely ill. It cannot adequately serve my community and suffers from onerous licensing and regulation.
I enjoyed reading [incoming CCC Executive Director] Travis Ahern’s interview… . A comment to Chris Faraone inspired some hope: “On top of that and the governance document, all of these different things—social consumption, the two-driver rule, vertical integration, all have subject matter.expertise internally, They’ve identified externally who they want to be using, and they’re working on solving these issues, bringing it back to the commission overall. So the working group model is almost built into that governance structure.”
Two things Travis says pique my interest. First, of course, is his mention of vertical integration, which we are familiar with, but is a term lost on all but a few of us citizens. I address the long-overdue elimination of vertical integration below but am somewhat mystified that “the working group model” is “almost built into governance structure.” What happened to the working groups actually built into governance structure, those being the Citizens’ Advisory Boards (CAB)? As I understand it, the state created a Cannabis Advisory Board to study cannabis-related issues and make recommendations on regulating and taxing marijuana.
Whatever became of the Citizens’ Advisory Board? I hear from CAB members that the CCC has created internal working groups as alternatives to the CAB. I hear the CAB has no power or influence. What a shame! Back to my main issues. …
Reinvigorating the moribund medical marijuana industry
No new medical marijuana licenses are being issued. A lack of medical marijuana
dispensaries are driving patients to recreational dispensaries and medical cannabis patient numbers are dropping. Medical license holders who are leaving the business include Apothca, The Cannabist, Trulieve, and Rev Clinics (Cambridge) and Rise Amherst.
The regulations governing medical marijuana licensing limit growth and are causing so many closures of medical marijuana dispensaries that patients aren’t properly served. What regulations make medical cannabis licensing a losing proposition?
Vertical integration
[Medical Use of Marijuana Program] licensing requires all three functions: growing, processing and retailing—unlike recreational licensing, a medical cannabis licensee is required to finance all three types of cannabis operations. Only the very wealthiest businesses can finance such a venture. Lack of capital is the number one reason businesses fail.
Agent fees
Agent registrations that are $115 for recreational agents cost $500 for medical ones.
Capital requirements
Recreational marijuana license applicants must outline their plan and their ability to fund it. Medical cannabis license applicants must prove they have $500,000 in a separate account, which is not a loan. That limits medical licensing applicants to millionaires.
Reciprocity
Medical dispensaries are not allowed to service card-holding out-of-state patients. This limitation on their sales potential is unreasonable.
Restoration
The recreational cannabis industry is large enough to lower their costs through economies-of-scale. The medical cannabis industry is relatively smaller and getting smaller as time goes by. The CCC must enable the medical cannabis industry in ways that allow it to grow to a size that can offer similar economies-of-scale, or it is doomed to decline.
Please restore vigor to medicinal cannabis licensing and restore patient faith in the commonwealth’s medical cannabis program by moderating the licensing requirements.
Please allow separate licenses for growing, processing and selling medical cannabis.
Please adjust other medical licensing requirements,like the cash requirement, to those for recreational cannabis. Please allow sales to patients from other states Please use the regulatory language proposed 4/30/2020 by [former CCC Commissioner] Kay Doyle in her memorandum to Pauline Nguyen titled “Addressing Vertical Integration in the Medical Use of Marijuana Program.”
Chapter 180 equity is not being applied to the medical cannabis market
Chapter 180 calls for opportunities for equity applicants across the cannabis industry. Medical licensing for cannabis does not help equity applicants; it does the opposite. Current licensing requirements, like vertical integration and funds in escrow requirements, make participation by equity applicants impossible.
Medical hardship cultivation remains unavailable
The Commission has not yet implemented the Hardship Cultivation Registration program. Failure to implement Medical Hardship Cultivation is prima facie evidence of the neglect of medical cannabis in general at the CCC. The 12 plant limit forces patients to buy cannabis, many of whom cannot afford to do so.
Medical cannabis use in institutionalized settings
The lack of regulated medical cannabis use in institutionalized settings has allowed a patchwork of rules allowing or denying use varying from institution to institution. Statewide policies would assure patients have some access.
Children cannot access medical marijuana in Massachusetts
The requirement that, “If you are younger than 18 years old, your parent or guardian must approve of your medical cannabis use, and you must have certification by two Certifying Health Care Providers, one of whom must be a pediatrician or pediatric specialist,” cannot be met. The sole pediatrician writing medical marijuana recommendations, Dr. Eric Ruby of Taunton, has retired.
Renewal of medical certification should not be required for permanent medical conditions
I have gout and circulation issues. There is no cure, I will need medicinal cannabis until my end. Requiring annual renewal for medicinal use for someone like me is not necessary.
Again, best of luck and thank you for your consideration.
Bill Downing
