Tim Fox
Well-Known Member
John Sajo
10 hrs ·
THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA MANDATE
At today's meeting of the Patient Access Subcommittee of the Oregon Cannabis Commission I proposed legislative changes that will create a program to provide low-income patients with free medical cannabis products. A key element is a proposal that all OLCC licensees be required to participate in a program to help patients. OLCC producers and processors would have to contribute a percentage of their inventory to a pool of medicine to be made available to qualified patients who can't afford to buy their medicine.
The context of this proposal is a failing Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP). The number of registered patients has fallen from 77,000 to less than 40,000 over the last two years. I believe the biggest reason for the decline in the program is that patients that can't afford to buy their medicine are dropping out. For twenty years Oregon has had a system where designated OMMP growers provide free medicine to patients. Since Oregon voters legalized marijuana in 2014, dozens of legislative changes have driven out these OMMP growers and created a new system of OLCC regulated farms. The problem is the OMMP growers took care of the patients but the OLCC farmers don't. My proposal would change that.
The goal of this program is to provide access to medical cannabis products to every qualified patient that could benefit from using cannabis. The patients who can afford to buy their medicine are not the issue here because they now have access to thousands of different strains, edibles, extracts, salves and new products being created. Low income patients should have access to all these high quality products.
Voluntary efforts to assist patients within the OLCC system have been tried. They have failed. There is a "bump up" program where OLCC producers can grow more for patients but its confusing rules scared off virtually every participant. Producers can currently donate to patients, but only through dispensaries. Again almost no producers are able to make this work.
OLCC farms produced over 1 million pounds of marijuana last year. Less than 400,000 pounds were sold. There are approximately 20,000 OMMP patients who qualify for discounted fees and might qualify for a low-income access to medicine program. Providing them each with two pounds (or the equivalent in edibles, concentrates, extracts or other products) would take 40,000 pounds or 4% of the overall inventory.
There are many details to this proposal and the OCC can merely make suggestions to the Legislature that will ultimately decide on these ideas. I am including my complete memo describing this in my comments below. I look forward to feedback on this proposal.
10 hrs ·
THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA MANDATE
At today's meeting of the Patient Access Subcommittee of the Oregon Cannabis Commission I proposed legislative changes that will create a program to provide low-income patients with free medical cannabis products. A key element is a proposal that all OLCC licensees be required to participate in a program to help patients. OLCC producers and processors would have to contribute a percentage of their inventory to a pool of medicine to be made available to qualified patients who can't afford to buy their medicine.
The context of this proposal is a failing Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP). The number of registered patients has fallen from 77,000 to less than 40,000 over the last two years. I believe the biggest reason for the decline in the program is that patients that can't afford to buy their medicine are dropping out. For twenty years Oregon has had a system where designated OMMP growers provide free medicine to patients. Since Oregon voters legalized marijuana in 2014, dozens of legislative changes have driven out these OMMP growers and created a new system of OLCC regulated farms. The problem is the OMMP growers took care of the patients but the OLCC farmers don't. My proposal would change that.
The goal of this program is to provide access to medical cannabis products to every qualified patient that could benefit from using cannabis. The patients who can afford to buy their medicine are not the issue here because they now have access to thousands of different strains, edibles, extracts, salves and new products being created. Low income patients should have access to all these high quality products.
Voluntary efforts to assist patients within the OLCC system have been tried. They have failed. There is a "bump up" program where OLCC producers can grow more for patients but its confusing rules scared off virtually every participant. Producers can currently donate to patients, but only through dispensaries. Again almost no producers are able to make this work.
OLCC farms produced over 1 million pounds of marijuana last year. Less than 400,000 pounds were sold. There are approximately 20,000 OMMP patients who qualify for discounted fees and might qualify for a low-income access to medicine program. Providing them each with two pounds (or the equivalent in edibles, concentrates, extracts or other products) would take 40,000 pounds or 4% of the overall inventory.
There are many details to this proposal and the OCC can merely make suggestions to the Legislature that will ultimately decide on these ideas. I am including my complete memo describing this in my comments below. I look forward to feedback on this proposal.
