AUGUSTA — Medical marijuana advocates are raising questions about a new state inspection program that they say hasn’t been fully developed and may not have been implemented legally.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services signed a one-year, $167,000 contract with the Maine Sheriff’s Association in March to hire four inspectors to investigate complaints about any of the 1,700 caregivers scattered throughout the state who grow marijuana for patients. The patients must be directed to caregivers by doctors who sign a certificate, similar to a prescription, saying the patient needs marijuana to help treat a medical condition or alleviate the symptoms of a condition.

The caregivers, many of whom cultivate the marijuana at their homes, can treat up to five patients, growing no more than six plants for each patient.

While the state’s existing rules don’t outline an inspection process, there are rules on their operations and DHHS said the new inspectors will be used to investigate any complaints from the public that growers – primarily caregivers – are violating the rules, according to David Sorenson, the department’s spokesman.

Paul McCarrier, a caregiver advocate and president of Legalize Maine, a group working on legalizing marijuana, said the inspection program doesn’t appear to have been adopted through the normal rule-making process, raising questions about its validity. He also said caregivers haven’t been officially informed of the new inspection program and there are other questions that DHHS hasn’t addressed.

One involves the voluntary aspect of the inspections. If a caregiver refuses to allow an inspector in, DHHS is supposed to be notified, but there’s no clear direction on what happens next, McCarrier said.

The inspections also put caregivers in a difficult position, McCarrier said, because there are limits on who can have access to their growing operations. He said the inspectors, who are former police officers, don’t have any policing authority and the sheriff’s association is a nonprofit, not a state agency. The association’s website says it “coordinates law enforcement and corrections activities with other related agencies.”

Inspectors will carry business cards identifying themselves, but not badges.

King Bishop, a caregiver from Morrill, didn’t know the inspections were happening until inspectors Matthew Clark and Mark Desjardin showed up at his door last month.

Bishop said they were polite and asked legitimate questions, but they didn’t have IDs other than business cards and he wasn’t sure what to make of their role in the program.

“I didn’t know what my rights were,” he said. “I didn’t know what powers DHHS had given them.”

McCarrier said that’s what worries him about the program.

“I basically want to make sure that everybody feels safe and everybody feels that this is going to be a professional relationship between a regulatory agency and a small business,” McCarrier said.

Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty, who negotiated the contract with the state, said each of the inspectors will work 60 hours per month. Liberty said the inspectors are plain-clothed, unarmed and ask for voluntary consent to inspect operations.

Liberty conceded that there are questions about the inspections, calling it an “ever-evolving” program.

Early inspections, he said, are “going to be much different from the 50th one we do and we’re learning as we go, also.”

“I think they’re doing very well now,” Liberty said. “These are very tenured investigators – very smart guys – and they’ll pick (it) up quickly.”

Under the contract the sheriff’s association signed on March 1, DHHS is responsible for training investigators on state laws and rules.

The contract says complaints will be reviewed by DHHS, and officials will decide if they warrant further action. If they do, they’ll be referred to the inspectors, who must start investigating within 48 hours and finish reviews in two weeks. They must send weekly progress reports to the department, which will decide how to resolve complaints.

Marietta D’Agostino, who runs the medical marijuana program for DHHS, couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

Press Herald Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy contributed to this report.

Copy the Story Link