Lots of Different Rules Governing Maine’s Marijuana Programs Are Going to Become Official Soon – But When?

We are waiting on final and effective versions of several different sets of rules governing Maine’s marijuana programs. I’ll start with the Rules for the Certification of Marijuana Testing Facilities, since the public hearing for these rules was just yesterday. The hearing was sparsely attended and public comments were not particularly noteworthy. Readers probably know that the Emergency Rules for the Certification of Marijuana Testing Facilities already took effect in September. This is allowed during rulemaking under Maine’s administrative procedures act in certain situations, and so rulemaking continues anyway. Final written comments are due October 10. At that point, we can expect about a month until final testing rules are released since the Office of Marijuana Policy (OMP) will need to work with the Office of the Attorney General to sort through and incorporate any comments.

We are, of course, also still waiting with baited breath for the final adult use rules to be released. These will incorporate, at a minimum, the changes required by the legislature last June. The legislature required some fairly broad changes to the residency requirements in these draft rules, and we are waiting to see how OMP reacts and what the final rules look like accordingly. These adult use rules, the OMP has stated, will be released within the next 60 days.

Don’t forget that the rules governing Maine’s medical marijuana program are outdated. The current rules were enacted before the legislature significantly revised the program in 2018. So expect OMP to also tackle a rewrite of these rules sometime, perhaps this winter.