Why haven’t I heard of MMRSA?

That’s a good question.

MMRSA is an acronym for the California Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act and is set to take effect Jan. 1st 2018.  The reason you probably haven’t heard of it is because it was passed last minute during a California budget meeting.

Lawmakers thought it crucial to regulate medical marijuana in an effort to shake the stigma of being “the wild west of weed”.

Par for the course: in trying not to look under regulated, Ca instituted three separate bills in an effort to control every aspect of medical marijuana.  The pendulum has swung. From the rubber stamp state of 1996 – present, to a highly regulated market, the likes California medical users have not experienced before.

 

 

 

 

 

So what does it all mean?

As a medical user, it may not seem like MMRSA will effect you.  Here’s how it does.

Businesses will be in shorter supply.  Deliveries/dispensaries are going to be under more scrutiny.  That doesn’t really bother us here at BNG deliveries.  We have a long paper trail and a history of doing things legitimately.

There will be fewer businesses operating in each area.  This is because each business will have to vie for one of the seventeen(17) new licenses that the state will be issuing.  That means less competition and higher prices.

Taxes will increase the product price as well.  As part of the taxation code for the new set of laws, medical marijuana will be subject to a 15% tax.

Most importantly, the medical users are going to be heavily effected by the new regulations for doctors.  If the regulating agencies are given the power to determine what marijuana should or should not be recomended for, doctors may become scared of these agencies and fail to issue as many recommendations.

And now that Prop 64 has been voted in, see YES on Prop 64, there is going to be a lot of money that gets pumped into these regulatory agencies.  With more money, comes more power.  We’ll all just have to wait and see what that translates into for medical users of today.

At the end of the day – We recommend that every medical user gets a new recommendation in December of 2017.  This way, you’ll have a whole year of guaranteed access before you have to deal with all the new regulations.