By Chelsea Boyd, R Street Institute
Cannabis regulation may soon undergo changes. After numerous attempts, The Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act (SAFER Banking Act) is now out of the committee and heading to the full Senate. The SAFER Banking Act, if passed, will allow cannabis businesses to access financial institutions and stop being cash-only. This could also make it easier to run cannabis businesses for adult and medical use.
SAFER Banking Act is just one example how inaction and conflicting policies have limited the cannabis industry. If this legislation becomes law, it may be the beginning of a series major changes in federal cannabis laws. rescheduling could be coming as well. It is important to consider how these changes might affect the industry’s balance between supplying marijuana as medicine and supplying it for recreational use.
Patients and patient advocacy groups express concern about the impact of expanding adult-use markets on medical markets and access to care. Americans for Safe Access’s 2022 state by state report, for example, notes that companies that are medically focused are shifting to adult-use because they perceive adult-use as more profitable. My colleague interviewed patients for a report and they expressed the same concern about adult-use dispensaries replacing medical dispensaries. They also noted a decrease in availability of desired products.
Many people may ask, “If recreational marijuana use is legalized, what are the advantages of having a medical market?”
Some states’ medical marijuana programs can be characterized by excessive red tape, which can lead to access requirements. These policies may discourage patients from obtaining a medical card. This could prevent some people from benefiting from medical cannabis. A state’s medical program can provide some relief from the heavy taxes on adult-use cannabis products. Adult-use products are also a higher concentration of THC, the primary intoxicating cannabis cannabinoid. This may make them less desirable to medical cannabis users.
Where does this leave the patients, who are a smaller part of the market?
Research suggests that certain states have implemented programs that may be detrimental to medical cannabis businesses. A report analyzing different indicators of medical market use and accessibility across three states revealed some evidence of how adult-use legalization could change the makeup of medical markets. The regulatory structure adopted by the states seems to influence how changes in patient registration numbers, adult-use dispensaries’ proportion and medical cannabis sales after adult-use legalization. The study shows adult-use legalization does not mean the end of medical cannabis markets. However, it suggests that there may be specific policies that can help protect medical markets once adult-use markets are open.
Some states have implemented policies to ensure patient access even after the adult-use laws are in place. New Mexico’s regulatory agency has the authority to mandate that certain amounts of cannabis be reserved for patients, and Maryland requires that dispensaries keep adequate stock for medical patients.
Regulation is only as good as its enforcement. New Jersey dispensaries serving the adult and medical markets are required to allow patients to make reservations and provide patient-only parking, checkout lines, and hours. Since adult-use dispensaries began operating in April 2022 all notices of violations listed on the Cannabis Regulatory Commission website up until January 2023 have been related to patient access laws. It’s good to see that the state has taken enforcement action and issued violations, but seeing that some businesses have multiple violations could suggest that these measures aren’t as effective as they should be.
Regulators should be aware of the potential impact of new laws and regulations on patient access as states expand adult-use markets or modify existing adult-use and medical markets. This is especially true when federal regulations are updated.
Chelsea Boyd, integrated harm reduction researcher at R Street Institute.
Colorado Dispensaries have sold more than $15 billion worth of marijuana since legalization, generating $2.5 billion in tax revenue, state reports
Photo by Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
The article Marijuana Moment : As Marijuana Bank Reform and Rescheduling Approach, We Mustn’t Forget Medical Cannabis Patients appeared first on Marijuana Moment .
