This thread may be dead, but I live in Maine and have been going through the whole process. My advice, get yourself a good lawyer to start with. Form a non-profit with a squeky clean board of directors that has someone other than your friends on it. You are going to need well respected figures for your board or you simply will be rejected.
Our board of directors, which took months of work to get situated consists of doctors, lawyers, a retired federal prosecutor, and a retired Maine judge. You need people of this quality. If you haven't been attendeding the Task Force meetings your behind already and maybe to late for the initial wave of dispensaries. And that wave is going to be much, much smaller than you think. Initially it was going to be 8 state wide, now they are looking at the New Mexico model and probably only 1-3 to start with. As the state patient base grows they will add more but it could be years down the road.
You need a charter and bylaws. People with a financial interest in the non-profit can not exceed 49%. That means that if you and say a friend are doing this, you both share a 49% stake in the business, the other 51% is controlled by the Board of Directors which has responsibility for compensation and hiring/firing of staff which includes yourself. If you have a financial interest in the business you cannot vote in any matters such as compensation (your wages) or hiring of individuals. Think about that, you could form a business and be replaced by your Board of Directors.
Some other things to consider; The Task Force is looking at having the Department of Agriculture do some or all of the growing. Rep Haskell, Attorney General Mills, and a few others favor this. They are looking at establishing price controls at dispensaries just like the control the price of booze in our state. The price controls being considered are in the $80-100 an ounce range. This is to pull patients and caregivers out of this business. Oversight will mean things like no-notice inspections.
If they have the DOA grow it, one proposal is for them to be the nursery stock facility for the entire state. You would buy clones from them, they would have a seal that expires in 120 days, and anyone, registered or unregistered found growing without state seals attached would be deemed illegal and be prosecuted. Because you buy stock from them they would not allow you to keep mother plants. They will charge $30 or so for clones to cover program costs.
Really, if your interested in this post a contact number or some way for me to get in touch with you and we can meet. I'm in the L/A area. The items I mentioned above have not been discused at the meetings in public, no requirement to do so. I have the draft proposal in my hands, I suggest if you see this post before Jan 5th that you attend the Task Force meeting. This was not a regular meeting but was added to discuss the items I mentioned above.
This if adopted will push even unregistered patients to purchase nursery stock or be deemed an "illegal grow" and will require patients that had a doctors recommendation written years ago to have it updated every year in order to purchase nursery stock. There is also a $5,000 fee to apply (refunded if rejected). You also need a permit from your city allowing for the business and the application must contain your grow location and dispensary location if different. Your home is not an option here, so plan on finding a location for each, obtain city approval, fill out the application and pray a lot.
If your serious, make sure you have a business model and do the math, your going to need to be able to support the business financially (leases, utilities, insurance, etc) for at least a year or more. Oh yeah, you can't grow a single plant until you have patients registered with the state establishing your dispensary as the grow location. Patients are going to be restricted on how many times they can change growers yearly.
The Task Force is going to restrict a lot of aspects of this business in Maine. You should be establishing contacts at your local level (city coucil, mayor, chief of police), at the state level, and with DHHS who ultimately will have oversight. This will not be a business opportunity the same as it has been in other states.
Maine has zero registered patients currently. The patient base is estimated at around 7,900. No state that has a state registry has more than half of 1% of it's population as registered patients. New Mexico has similiar demographics as Maine and now has 4 dispensaries that I am aware of and 1,000 patients. So if your seeing big dollars or an easy living consider everything above.
Lastly it is vital that you speak to your city council, many cities such as Auburn are establishing a moritorium on dispensaries, if you city is doing the same and you plan on doing business there your dead in the water. You won't even be able to submit a package if you don't have approval. If your in the country things are different but there still are issues.
Not sure if this helped you or not, I hope so. If it did and you attended the next meeting Jan 5th look for me. The crowd is small, last time maybe 15 people or so. I'm a patient so I'll be one of the few there that looks a little crispy.. lol
Take care!
