This week at Life’s Rx, the first medical marijuana dispensary to open in Renton, there was a table set up with free food for the patients.
But while it may have looked like the set up for a party, the mood is less than celebratory as the dispensary prepared to permanently close its doors to come into compliance with the Cannabis Patient Protection Act – also known as Senate Bill 5052 – which combined the medical and recreational marijuana industries into a single business model as of today, July 1.
“We’re very sad to see it go,” Life’s Rx manager Konner Rose said this week.
Rose said Life’s Rx, which opened on Northeast Fourth Street in the Highlands in 2013, was unable to find a location in Renton that fit the city’s zoning requirements and planned to close its doors Thursday night in order to be in compliance with the law.
The purpose of the Cannabis Patient Protection Act is to more clearly define the term “medical marijuana,” which has been legally available to state residents since 1998. The bill is also an attempt to tighten state regulations regarding medical marijuana in order to make sure the end product, whether it be the dried plant for smoking or marijuana-infused food products and more, meets the same or higher standards the state has set for recreational marijuana, the bill reads.
The tightening of restrictions is why medical marijuana dispensaries around the state – and the city – have been required to apply for a recreational marijuana business license to stay open.
In addition to new medical marijuana regulations, these new rules establish a Medical Marijuana Authorization Database for medical marijuana patients and eliminates the old collective marijuana gardens. In their place, the bill sets up a new cooperative marijuana system that comes with new rules and requirements.
Which means, beginning today, only medically endorsed marijuana retailers can sell medically beneficial marijuana.
MEDICAL VS. RECREATIONAL
In terms of product, there are very little differences between medical and recreational marijuana, said Kristi Weeks, a policy counselor for the Washington State Department of Health.
“The only real difference between medical and recreational marijuana os the intent of the user,” she said during an interview last year. “Some strains or forms of marijuana may be more typically used by a medical patient, such as a very high CBD (or cannabidol) and low THC strain. But they all come from the same plant.”
In fact, the Department of Health and the Liquor and Cannabis Board shy away from using the term “medical marijuana,” because marijuana is considered a schedule 1 controlled substance by the federal government and the Food and Drug Administration has yet to classify it as medication. Instead, the DOH and LCB often use the term “medically beneficial” marijuana.
Rose disagreed that there is no real difference in the marijuana available at recreational and medical stores. He said rec stores do not provide the same level of “quality, potency and consistency” that collective members are used to. On top of that, medical patients were not paying the same tax rates as recreational buyers, which kept prices lower.
Even with the 10 percent discount that comes with having a medical marijuana endorsement, commonly referred to as a “green card,” the prices are still higher at recreational shops, something he says might drive some medical patients back to the black market instead of into rec shops.
Rose also said the dispensaries usually carry a larger selection of the high CBD plants. CBD is a non-psychoactive chemical, which means patients can get the physical benefits – such as anti-nausea or pain relief – without the “high” that recreational users are often seeking.
In addition, qualified medical marijuana patients who are entered into the new Medical Marijuana Authorization Database in order to be able to purchase “high THC products, which can have up to 50 milligrams of THC per service and no more than 500 milligrams of THC in a package.”
Under the new law, recreational stores can donate product to patients who are in the database if they choose.
PROCESS CHANGES
Becoming a medical marijuana patient is also more difficult than it was since 1998 because of the new law.
This is because there was no uniform criteria set for what qualified someone to be a medical marijuana patient before the Cannabis Patient Protection Act, and the bill sets stricter qualifications.
Because of this, many medical marijuana authorizations that were valid before July 1, 2016 are now no longer valid and patients must be re-authorized. (Authorizations that were approved after July 24, 2015 using the new authorization forms are still valid.)
To be authorized or re-authorized, a doctor or health care practitioner must first determine you would benefit from marijuana and determine you have one or several qualifying conditions. That meeting must be in a permanent place of business, “not a roving bus or a tent at Hemp Fest, which did happen,” according to Weeks.
Qualifying conditions, in general, are “terminal or debilitating” conditions and diseases that interfere with daily life.
This includes, but is not limited to, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy or other seizure disorders, intractable pain, glaucoma (acute or chronic), Crohn’s disease, and the nausea, vomiting and cachexia associated with anorexia, HIV and AIDS, hepatitis C and cancer and their various treatments.
But conditions that were valid before the Cannabis Patient Protect Act, like bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety, are no longer valid under the new law. The Medical Quality Assurance Commission, which controls the list of qualifying conditions, determined there is a lack of scientific evidence that marijuana helps mitigate those conditions and has denied these petitions to add them to the list.
Once a health care practitioner fills out the marijuana authorization form, patients can then take the form to any medically-endorsed marijuana retailer in the state. A medical marijuana consultant at the retail store will take the form’s information and put it into the Medical Marijuana Authorization Database, take your picture and print out a medical marijuana recognition card.
Only patients that are entered into the database and have their recognition card on hand can receive the benefits of being a medical marijuana patient. One benefit is the tax breaks. Medical marijuana patients can purchase their marijuana from a medically-endorsed retail store without sales tax though the 37 percent excise tax still applies.
Washington voters approved Advisory Vote No. 11 on the Nov. 3, 2015 ballot, which helped the legislature decide to keep the excise tax in place for medical marijuana patients.
Medical marijuana patients can also purchase up to three times the marijuana as a recreational user. Non-patients can legally purchase a maximum of one ounce of dried marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused edibles or 72 ounces of marijuana in liquid forms.
They can also grow up to six marijuana plants for their own use and possess eight ounces of usable marijuana from those plants. With a healthcare practitioner’s approval, a patient can grow up to 15 plants and have 16 ounces of usable marijuana.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Life’s Rx patient John Plessinger, part of a steady stream of patients coming and going from the shop earlier this week, said he hoped to start growing his own soon, but in the meantime will have to visit a local recreational store to help him deal with chronic back pain from several pinched discs.
“I think it’s really sad that patients who really need the medicine will have a harder time getting it,” he said. “They need to keep these open!”
Rose said his dispensary has provided about 4,000 different patients with access to medicinal marijuana during its nearly three years in business and while they are not sending patients to any particular recreational store, they are telling their clients where local rec stores are located so they could continue to find the product.
They planned to stay open as long as possible, but Rose said they would comply with the new law and shut their doors on Friday.
“We’re happy to be here with our patients until the end,” he said.
