Rhode Island’s Emergency Regulations Create New Medical Marijuana Cultivators

Rhode Island officials fear that a medical marijuana shortage could arise in early 2017. To remedy the potential issue, emergency regulations were put in place this week to allow for a new group of private marijuana cultivators. The plan is to get these operations up and running as quickly as possible.

The cultivators are supposed to replace patient caregivers for the three medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, reports Providence Journal. The patient caregivers currently serving the dispensaries aren’t growing all of the strains to help the 15,470 patients in Rhode Island.

The black market is one of the reason for the shift. Starting January 1, caregivers are banned from selling excess medical marijuana to dispensaries. This leaves 2,820 private growers in a small state without capped licenses with new restrictions to follow.

Depending on space available, the new cultivators will be permitted to grow up to 500 plants and can have up to 10 pounds of usable marijuana on-hand. Usable marijuana that is not part of a dispensary order has to be sold or destroyed within 30 days.

Although Rhode Island dispensaries are permitted to grow, they are still outsourcing up to 60-percent of their product from private growers.

Caregiver Thomas Moulton said, “We don’t know what the business climate will be like in the first year. It seems like regulators in Rhode Island believe it will be extremely lucrative. I hope it is.”

Applications for new cultivators will be accepted until April 30. The application process will be opened annually until the state decides that there are enough marijuana dispensaries in operation.