AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Office of Marijuana Policy is releasing new regulations for the first time in almost three years.
Most of the new regulations are for the medical marijuana industry. Experts say medical marijuana and adult-use marijuana will remain different industries but now the medical marijuana industry will have some of the same regulations as the adult-use industry.
"The law goes into place in 2018 and no rules were ever written for it," Jill Polster said. Polster is a compliance attorney at Cohen Maine Law and works with medical marijuana caregivers.
The law for medical marijuana was passed before there was even an Office of Marijuana Policy. Now, regulations that came after are being put in place.
Some of those regulations include giving municipalities the opportunity to allow or not allow certain types of facilities, the state's product tracking system, which is already up in running in the adult-use community and will now be used for medical marijuana, and labeling regulations.
"So they know what's in and what isn't in the products they choose to consume," Eric Gundersen, Director of the Office of Marijuana policy said.
Many of these regulations are for the medical side of the business—folks in the adult-use industry say this might help to even the playing field.
"It's gonna align the two programs which are drastically different currently," Scott Howard, owner of Seaweed Co. in South Portland said.
"When these rules came out you start seeing it look a little more like what we're seeing on the adult-use side," Polster added.
"Even though it's nowhere near its final form finally we're getting a sneak peek or a preview of what the direction the office of marijuana policy is taking," she said.
Gundersen said now that the adult-use program is up and running, the office is, "circling back again to the medical program."
The Office of Marijuana Policy will be taking public comment from stakeholders in this community before finalizing the new regulations. You have until 5 p.m. on Sunday, January 10 to submit a comment.