Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Uncertain about new regulations governing the sale of marijuana, some dispensary operators say that starting Monday they won't sell medical cannabis to customers if they're equipped merely with a referral from a local doctor.
Instead, to avoid the possibility of breaking the law, some dispensaries will now require medical marijuana patients to present a state-sanctioned identification card issued by the California Department of Public Health.
Alfredo Vela Chiu, manager of the Shambhala Medical Cannabis Collective, expects that most of his patrons will be recreational buyers once those sales start in the city as soon as Jan. 6. Legal recreational sales are set to begin Monday morning at about 65 outlets in other cities, including Oakland and Berkeley.
But for his medical marijuana patients, "you're not going to be able to walk in with a recommendation from a street doctor. You're going to need that state-issued ID," he said. "I'm sure a lot of folks will be shocked."
While the legalization of adult-use cannabis allows anyone over 21 to purchase recreational pot from a shop that obtains both a local and state license, there are some incentives to buying marijuana as a medical patient. With a state-issued medical marijuana card, patients don't have to pay state sales tax, they may purchase and carry more marijuana at one time, and they have access to more potent products.
Blake Jones, a manager and marijuana buyer at the Urban Pharm dispensary, said that just days before recreational pot sales are set to begin in San Francisco, the validity of medical cards issued by local doctors was a question he was still "searching for clarification on. The latest word I have, though, is that those recommendations will be invalid. Nobody wants to overstep. Everyone is trying to be careful."
San Francisco's 46 medical cannabis businesses all got temporary permits to keep selling medical marijuana next year. Once the city sets up a process for permanent medicinal sales permits, dispensaries will have to apply within 30 days. If they are approved, they may seek a state license.
The city set up a separate application process on Dec. 18 for those dispensaries to get temporary permits to sell recreational marijuana. About half of the dispensaries applied. The earliest that the city will authorize recreational sales is Jan. 6. The temporary permits for recreational sales are good for 120 days, with the possibility of a 90-day extension.
According to state cannabis officials and marijuana-industry attorneys, there is no law prohibiting dispensaries from selling cannabis to medical patients who present a valid medical card or referral from a doctor – just as it's been for the last two decades.
"There are a lot of these little misconceptions that keep popping around regulation issues," said Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. "The idea has always been to ... not impact the already-thriving cannabis industry. As of Jan. 1, 2018, nothing should change for the medical patient," he said.
However, dispensary operators facing quickly-shifting regulations at the local and state levels are likely to be overcautious in an effort to stay within the limits of the law, said Josh Drayton, a spokesman for the California Cannabis Industry Association.
"This is the first time that many brick-and-mortar dispensaries will be operating under this regulatory system, and they don't want to make any mistakes or accept patients they don't believe are eligible to enter as a patient," he said.
Medical marijuana patients have for years been able to register for a state-issued identification card, which experts said is the gold standard for verifying that a person is legally permitted to purchase and possess cannabis for medical purposes. The Medical Marijuana Identification Card Program is run by the state, but the cards are administered by individual counties and must be renewed annually.
"It's a sure way for law enforcement to identify who was legal and who wasn't, so there wouldn't be any quarrels about it," said Dale Gieringer, the state coordinator for California NORML, the cannabis advocacy organization.
With the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016, a state-issued medical marijuana card exempted patients from the state sales tax on cannabis products. Denying entry to customers who present locally issued medical referral cards "is a matter of protection for the dispensary, precisely so they don't run into any tax issues," said Jasun Molinelli, an attorney and head of the cannabis practice at the law firm Archer Norris.
"They're certainly being overcautious to some extent, but they're protecting their right to operate. But I would really hate to see that over-cautiousness restrict access" to cannabis, Molinelli said.
The state card also allows medical marijuana patients to purchase and possess more pot at one time and gives them access to more potent products than what's offered to recreational consumers. But despite those benefits, the state-issued card program has been unpopular, largely because it's voluntary, and that it costs about $100 to enroll, Drayton said. Other cannabis consumers have foregone getting the card over concern about registering as a cannabis user with a government agency.
Between the 2014 and 2017 fiscal years, the state health department issued an average of 6,402 medical marijuana ID cards each year – a tiny fraction of the estimated 1.5 million Californians who have medical cards issued by local doctors, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a national pro-cannabis group.
Dispensary operators and regulators say they're confident that, as time goes on, the rules surrounding the recreational cannabis market will become increasingly clear for business operators and consumers alike. A sea change as big as legalizing marijuana, they say, is likely to come with some hiccups at first.
Chase Chambers, general manager of the Apothecarium dispensaries, won't be turning eligible customers away come Jan. 6, regardless of what kind of medical card they present at the door. Of course, with a valid ID like a driver's license, anyone age 21 or over can purchase cannabis without any medical recommendation at all.
But Chambers empathizes with dispensary owners trying to chart a course through the new, parallel rules governing recreational and medical cannabis users.
"We're all really trying to air on the side of caution," Chambers said. "That might be the reason why people are implementing things differently."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Some dispensaries to require state IDs for medical pot patients - San Francisco Chronicle
Author: Dominic Fracassa
Contact: Customer Service - San Francisco Chronicle
Photo Credit: CannabisReports
Website: San Francisco Chronicle - Bay Area news, sports, tech, food - San Francisco Chronicle
Instead, to avoid the possibility of breaking the law, some dispensaries will now require medical marijuana patients to present a state-sanctioned identification card issued by the California Department of Public Health.
Alfredo Vela Chiu, manager of the Shambhala Medical Cannabis Collective, expects that most of his patrons will be recreational buyers once those sales start in the city as soon as Jan. 6. Legal recreational sales are set to begin Monday morning at about 65 outlets in other cities, including Oakland and Berkeley.
But for his medical marijuana patients, "you're not going to be able to walk in with a recommendation from a street doctor. You're going to need that state-issued ID," he said. "I'm sure a lot of folks will be shocked."
While the legalization of adult-use cannabis allows anyone over 21 to purchase recreational pot from a shop that obtains both a local and state license, there are some incentives to buying marijuana as a medical patient. With a state-issued medical marijuana card, patients don't have to pay state sales tax, they may purchase and carry more marijuana at one time, and they have access to more potent products.
Blake Jones, a manager and marijuana buyer at the Urban Pharm dispensary, said that just days before recreational pot sales are set to begin in San Francisco, the validity of medical cards issued by local doctors was a question he was still "searching for clarification on. The latest word I have, though, is that those recommendations will be invalid. Nobody wants to overstep. Everyone is trying to be careful."
San Francisco's 46 medical cannabis businesses all got temporary permits to keep selling medical marijuana next year. Once the city sets up a process for permanent medicinal sales permits, dispensaries will have to apply within 30 days. If they are approved, they may seek a state license.
The city set up a separate application process on Dec. 18 for those dispensaries to get temporary permits to sell recreational marijuana. About half of the dispensaries applied. The earliest that the city will authorize recreational sales is Jan. 6. The temporary permits for recreational sales are good for 120 days, with the possibility of a 90-day extension.
According to state cannabis officials and marijuana-industry attorneys, there is no law prohibiting dispensaries from selling cannabis to medical patients who present a valid medical card or referral from a doctor – just as it's been for the last two decades.
"There are a lot of these little misconceptions that keep popping around regulation issues," said Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. "The idea has always been to ... not impact the already-thriving cannabis industry. As of Jan. 1, 2018, nothing should change for the medical patient," he said.
However, dispensary operators facing quickly-shifting regulations at the local and state levels are likely to be overcautious in an effort to stay within the limits of the law, said Josh Drayton, a spokesman for the California Cannabis Industry Association.
"This is the first time that many brick-and-mortar dispensaries will be operating under this regulatory system, and they don't want to make any mistakes or accept patients they don't believe are eligible to enter as a patient," he said.
Medical marijuana patients have for years been able to register for a state-issued identification card, which experts said is the gold standard for verifying that a person is legally permitted to purchase and possess cannabis for medical purposes. The Medical Marijuana Identification Card Program is run by the state, but the cards are administered by individual counties and must be renewed annually.
"It's a sure way for law enforcement to identify who was legal and who wasn't, so there wouldn't be any quarrels about it," said Dale Gieringer, the state coordinator for California NORML, the cannabis advocacy organization.
With the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016, a state-issued medical marijuana card exempted patients from the state sales tax on cannabis products. Denying entry to customers who present locally issued medical referral cards "is a matter of protection for the dispensary, precisely so they don't run into any tax issues," said Jasun Molinelli, an attorney and head of the cannabis practice at the law firm Archer Norris.
"They're certainly being overcautious to some extent, but they're protecting their right to operate. But I would really hate to see that over-cautiousness restrict access" to cannabis, Molinelli said.
The state card also allows medical marijuana patients to purchase and possess more pot at one time and gives them access to more potent products than what's offered to recreational consumers. But despite those benefits, the state-issued card program has been unpopular, largely because it's voluntary, and that it costs about $100 to enroll, Drayton said. Other cannabis consumers have foregone getting the card over concern about registering as a cannabis user with a government agency.
Between the 2014 and 2017 fiscal years, the state health department issued an average of 6,402 medical marijuana ID cards each year – a tiny fraction of the estimated 1.5 million Californians who have medical cards issued by local doctors, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a national pro-cannabis group.
Dispensary operators and regulators say they're confident that, as time goes on, the rules surrounding the recreational cannabis market will become increasingly clear for business operators and consumers alike. A sea change as big as legalizing marijuana, they say, is likely to come with some hiccups at first.
Chase Chambers, general manager of the Apothecarium dispensaries, won't be turning eligible customers away come Jan. 6, regardless of what kind of medical card they present at the door. Of course, with a valid ID like a driver's license, anyone age 21 or over can purchase cannabis without any medical recommendation at all.
But Chambers empathizes with dispensary owners trying to chart a course through the new, parallel rules governing recreational and medical cannabis users.
"We're all really trying to air on the side of caution," Chambers said. "That might be the reason why people are implementing things differently."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Some dispensaries to require state IDs for medical pot patients - San Francisco Chronicle
Author: Dominic Fracassa
Contact: Customer Service - San Francisco Chronicle
Photo Credit: CannabisReports
Website: San Francisco Chronicle - Bay Area news, sports, tech, food - San Francisco Chronicle
