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Caregiver Standards


According to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, anyone can be a caregiver who is at least 21 with no drug felonies, no violent felonies, and no felony at all within the past ten years.

 

Do these minimum qualifiers help us to distinguish between a grower and a caregiver? Hardly. The spirit of the law lies in it's compassion for patients and it is upon this foundation of compassion that all of our future work depends. MMMA is interested first and foremost in POSITIVE PATIENT OUTCOMES. We want patients to be able to use the highest quality medicine available to alleviate the symptoms of their illness.

 

Bottom line: if you are interested in becoming a caregiver for any other reason than to assist in a POSITIVE PATIENT OUTCOME, then we recommend you look for another line of work. Please do not become a MMMA caregiver.

 

A few months ago, MMMA founders wrote an initial list of expectations for caregivers. This isn't a complete or final list. Please give us your feedback in any way that you think might contribute to improvement of this list.

 

MMMA is also exploring the future possibility of some form of voluntary caregiver certification. Any input or ideas concerning content for certification are welcome.

 

Caregivers listed with the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association are expected to conduct themselves in accordance with the highest ethical and professional standards. Towards that end we establish the following code.

 

All MMMA listed caregivers will be required to comply with the following guidelines:

 

1) Caregivers agree to follow all applicable state and local laws, regulations and ordinances;

  • Each caregiver can only assist five patients with their medical use of marijuana.
  • A caregiver must be at least 21 years old and have never been convicted of a felony involving illegal drugs, a violent felony, or a felony within the past ten years.
  • A caregiver must be designated by a qualified patient on her or his registry identification card application. If the qualified patient expects that you will cultivate on his or her behalf, then the qualified patient must also specify in that application that you can possess marijuana plants. Remember: as a caregiver, you are cultivating on behalf of the qualifying patient, and you should think of yourself as caring for plants that belong to that patient, as opposed to caring for your own plants.
  • A caregiver who is cultivating on behalf of a qualifying patient must do so only in an enclosed, locked facility.
  • A caregiver may receive compensation for costs associated with assisting a qualifying patient in the medical use of marihuana and that compensation shall not constitute the sale of controlled substances. That compensation shall be reasonable. Whenever possible, a qualified patient and caregiver should agree on compensation for costs at the beginning of the relationship to avoid disputes and misunderstandings in the future.
  • Collectively, the caregiver and the qualifying patient should only possess a quantity of marihuana that is not more than is reasonably necessary to ensure the uninterrupted availability of marihuana for the purpose of treating or alleviating the patient's serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient's serious or debilitating medical condition.
  • Caregivers are not allowed to use the patient's medical marijuana for their own use, and there is a severe additional penalty for any diversion of medical marijuana to non-patients.

2) Caregivers pledge to put the well-being of patients and the public good foremost.

 

3) Caregivers will always give honest measure or weight.

 

4) Caregivers will produce a “pure” product, uncontaminated with pesticides, mold and un-necessary additives or adulterants.

 

5) All ingredients used to make medical marijuana tinctures, preparations, suppositories or foods will be of high quality, clearly identified and made known to patients.

 

6) Caregivers will protect the confidentiality of their client patients.

 

7) Caregivers will strive to adopt green, eco-friendly techniques. We hope to better define more of these techniques in the future, but, at a minimum, don't pollute and recycle and re-use where possible to create the highest quality medicine with the minimum use of natural resources.

 

In the event of unresolvable disputes between caregivers and patients, the MMMA will agree to arbitrate such a dispute.

 

We look forward to your feedback.

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