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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 17 Sep 2015
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2015 Tucson Weekly
Contact: mailbag@tucsonweekly.com
Website: 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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you know home brews aren't inspected either. they could be selling beer illegally without a license.

 

or tomatoes you grow in backyard, you could be selling those without a business license!

 

you might be giving people rides without a taxi license too!!! better call the president

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No one seems to care about what goes into commercial facilities that require IPM... Integrated pest management... Which is the mainstay for any commercially grown crop in america. What about all the chemical pesticides and fungicides that are rotated through such crop management?

 

Commercial facilities, though easier for the regulators to identify, license and inspect, also means high concentrations of very large plant numbers... Which becomes very problematic when fighting off disease and bugs. Such large scale facilities absolutely have to use chemicals, and they still suffer from crop loss dur to bugs and mold. There is no commercially grown crop in the world that is immune from this, each crop, each cycle, everywhere. In all sincerity, the matter for commercial crops is one of degree in infestation... What percentage of the crop becomes infected and unsellable? It becomes a matter of managing those percentages, with commercial chems.

 

However, the smaller and less concentrated the grow circumstances, the easier it is to manage and even outright avoid such outbreaks of mold and bugs. It might be harder for the govt to regulate 1,000 smaller grows, but it effectively is much safer and cleaner and easier to manage outbreaks vs a single multi-thousand watt commercial grow... In fact, such facilities can not 100% mitigate outbreaks, nor the use of chemicals in the fight.

 

Also, if u have 10lbs from a small grow vs 1000lbs from a commercial grow... Who/which has the greatest ability and incentive to move the product by whichever means possible? Lets not forget that the commercial grow has monthly operating costs that reach into the six figures. Who has the greatest financial pressure to do whatever is necessary?

 

Such articles as above tend to be used as a scare tactic for the benefit of those that want to limit production to small number of massive commercial operations, which are by practice, much more dangerous to the everyday consumer than any caregiver, or mass group of caregivers.

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So which would you say is better. Eggs that are from a family flock or the commercially housed ? Hmmm How many recalls have we had for meat and vegetables grown in big commercial farms? Do you think tomatoes from a home garden are better or the ones from the big commercial farms. What about milk? I could go on and on. Anyone with half a brain knows when a corporation is involved quality goes down along with safety. The real argument hidden in these attacks are profits for the wealthy wanting to garner profits from cannabis

 

Why isn't the truth being told where is the defense to theses baseless attacks? Are their not groups out there wanting money from cannabis supporters who claim to be fighting for our interests?

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Here's their high standards for that old favorite, tobacco. I'd feel much more confident knowing these safe chemicals were allowed on my medicine. :sick:

 

Table 1: Pesticides Commonly Used on Domestic Tobacco, 1990-98:     

 

Primary use(s): Insecticide; Pesticide: Acephate, aldicarb, Bacillus thuringiensis, carbaryl, carbofuran, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, disulfoton, endosulfan, ethoprop, fenamiphos, fonofos, imidacloprid, malathion, methidathion, methomyl, spinosad, trichlorfon.

 

Primary use(s): Herbicide; Pesticide: Benefin, clomazone, diphenamid, isopropalin, napropamide, pebulate, pendimethalin, sethoxydim, sulfentrazone.

 

Primary use(s): Fungicide; Pesticide: Dimethomorph, mancozeb, mefenoxam, metalaxyl.

 

Primary use(s): Plant growth regulator; Pesticide: Ethephon, flumetralin.

 

Primary use(s): Plant growth regulator, herbicide; Pesticide: Maleic hydrazide.

 

Primary use(s): Fumigant, insecticide; Pesticide: Chloropicrin.

 

Primary use(s): Fumigant, insecticide, herbicide; Pesticide: Methyl bromide.

 

Primary use(s): Fungicide, insecticide, herbicide; Pesticide: 1,3- dichloropropene

(1,3-D).                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

Source: EPA, International Organization for Standardization, National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, and USDA.

 

 

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