New state guidelines prioritize medical marijuana users
Marijuana stores should take concrete steps to prioritize medical patients over recreational customers, state regulators said Friday.
Cannabis dispensaries should keep one sales window open for medical patients, may not reserve products for recreational customers, and must allow medical patients to buy up to 2.5 times any limit they set on recreational products, under new state guidelines.
The advisory from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation came following complaints from patients that they have not been able to get their usual specific products because of shortages caused by recreational sales which started this year.
State law had already required pot shops to “prioritize” medical patients and caregivers, but had not given these specific measures.
The law already allows medical patients to buy up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana every two weeks, rather than the one ounce allowed at any one time to recreational customers. But because of shortages, shops have been setting their own limits on purchases, such as one-eighth an ounce of flower, the smokable part of the plant. Under the new guidelines, shops must let medical patients buy 2.5 times as much as any limit they set for recreational customers.
In addition, shops generally let patients bypass the sometimes hourslong lines for recreational customers, and provide parking and advanced online ordering for medical patients only.
The added specifics from regulators may further encourage people to seek certification as a medical patient.
Almost 100,000 people had been approved as medical patients as of last month, a number which nearly doubled last year as the state greatly expanded the list of qualifying conditions to include common conditions such as chronic pain and arthritis.
Medical sales also nearly doubled to more than $27 million a month in December, the most recent month reported, compared to $39 million in the first month of recreational sales in January.
While growers must pay a 7% wholesale tax on all products, medical patients avoid the special sales taxes of 10% to 25% placed on recreational pot. But medical patients must pay a doctor’s certification fee that can run about $300, plus a standard license fee of $100 for one year, or $250 for three years.