Proponents say there’s huge unmet demand. Opponents say what’s not being considered is the huge number of plants growing in homes — more than 10 times the number growing in the dispensaries.
Gerry McGraw Jr. CEO and President of The Thomas C Slater Compassion Center. – The Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Just before Rhode Island’s first medical marijuana dispensaries opened four years ago, fewer than 5,000 people in the state were registered patients.
Since then, the number of medical marijuana patients in Rhode Island has more than tripled, to 17,757. Approximately one out of every 45 adults in the state is now a patient.
So does the Ocean State need more than the three dispensaries currently allowed by law?
“It’s based on simple economics, supply and demand,” said Sen. Stephen Archambault, the Smithfield Democrat championing the push in the Senate to expand the number of dispensaries.
“People are going to be able to get this drug from compassion centers more easily and at a decreased cost” if the bill passes, Archambault said.
There’s a contentious, politically charged battle underway on Smith Hill as lawmakers head into the homestretch of the session. In play is a proposal to double the number of dispensaries, known in Rhode Island as “compassion centers,” to six.
On one side: new players itching to enter the market who say not only is there demand, but that Rhode Island is significantly out of sync with the rest of the country in terms of how many dispensaries it has in comparison with its patient population.
On the other side: the existing dispensaries, arguing that more competition could kill their operations. They say the state’s extremely liberal home-grow laws for medical marijuana have created a wildly skewed playing field, pitting their businesses against an untaxed alternative that can be produced in a home’s basement.
Data provided by the state Department of Business Regulation show Rhode Island has the highest number of patients per allowed number of dispensaries of any state. With three dispensaries and 17,757 patients in Rhode Island, that’s one dispensary for every 5,919 patients. Massachusetts has roughly 34,000 patients and a law that allows 35 dispensaries, or one for every 971 patients. Connecticut allows nine dispensaries for its nearly 17,000 patients, or one for every 1,889 patients.
Rhode Island’s dispensaries are in Providence, Warwick and Portsmouth. The newest — Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick — opened in November 2014 when there were still fewer than 10,000 patients in the state. Since then, rapid growth has followed a growing acceptance of medical marijuana, the addition of new conditions to the program, and, possibly, abuse by out-of-state “doc shops” that approve large numbers of patients.
Last week, a Superior Court judge ruled that employers cannot use someone’s status as a medical marijuana cardholder as a reason not to hire them.
“If you look at patient growth, we’re growing at 4,000 to 5,000 patients a year. Nothing suggests that will cap,” said Bill Fischer, a lobbyist representing brothers Jamie and Joshua DeSousa, who hope to open the Blackstone Valley Compassion Center if the expansion bill passes. Fischer said there are a number of factors in play, including geographic need and high cost. Medical marijuana can sell for as much as $350 an ounce at dispensaries.
“There’s also the political plight of the [marijuana legalization] bill,” Fischer said, referring to speculation that the legalization push is dead this year. Legalization of recreational marijuana “could have provided increased competition and resulted in a lower cost for the patient community.
“That increasingly looks like it’s not going to be the case,” Fischer said. “The time for more compassion centers is now. It’s inevitable.”
For two years, The state’s three existing dispensaries have argued that increased competition could put them out of business.
“If you pass a bill that allows another compassion center to open up in Newport County or Bristol County, Greenleaf in Portsmouth will go out of business,” Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center CEO Seth Bock told a Senate panel this month.
Chris Reilly, a lobbyist for the the state’s largest dispensary, the Thomas C. Slater Center in Providence, said data showing Rhode Island has the highest ratio of patients to dispensaries paints an inaccurate picture of the market because of Rhode Island’s liberal home-grow laws, allowing one patient to have up to 12 plants and those growing for more than one person to have up to 24.
New data collected by the state this year revealed that roughly 45,000 medical marijuana plants are being grown by patients and private growers known as caregivers. That dwarfs the 4,000 plants being grown in the dispensaries.
“Where is the data to show that there is an unmet need?” Reilly asked. “Unless the very liberal home-grow provision is addressed, there will continue to be an imbalance. Sen. Archambault’s bill does not address the imbalance. All it does is add new centers to the limited pool of patients that use compassion centers in the first place.”
State data, however, suggests there is still a large number of patients relying primarily on compassion centers. The 45,000 plants registered in the state are being grown by 2,300 patients and caregivers, ostensibly leaving a large percentage of the patient population looking to the compassion centers for medicine.
Whether the issue will be addressed this session remains to be seen. House and Senate committees have held hearings on the proposal.
Asked whether House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello thinks the state needs more dispensaries, his spokesman, Larry Berman, said, “The bill has been heard by the House Judiciary Committee and it is following its normal process. Speaker Mattiello has had no personal involvement or discussions about the bill.”
Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, though spokesman Greg Pare, said he has not yet conferred with Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Erin Lynch Prata about the hearing on the bill.
The state has a clear financial interest in persuading more patients to get their medical marijuana through the dispensaries. The state collects 7-percent sales tax plus a 4-percent surcharge on medical marijuana sales. Those who grow marijuana at home avoid those charges and also lack the quality control and safety standards that the state imposes on commercial operations.
Meanwhile, it’s undisputed that business is increasing for the compassion centers, particularly since the state changed a law earlier this year allowing patients to shop at any dispensary.
In fiscal 2016, the 4-percent medical marijuana surcharge on $17.2 million in sales brought in $686,399. In the current fiscal year through the end of April, with two months left to go, $23.3 million in sales has generated $933,369 in surcharge revenue.
Link – Providence Journal
