Maine’s medical cannabis market has experienced an exodus of caregivers over the last two years, and the state’s Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) has taken a closer look at some of the root causes.
The Maine Medical Use of Cannabis Program saw more than 1,350 caregivers exit the program between the end of 2021 and the end of January 2023, a 27.5% total decrease of the program’s participants. While the impact has been and will continue to be felt, especially by the remaining caregivers, it begs the questions: Why did this trend emerge, and why are caretakers leaving?
A new survey of former caregivers, titled “Caregiver Exodus: Market Conditions and the Impact on Maine’s Medical Use of Cannabis Program,” looks to provide a better understanding of the issue.
The state OCP emailed the survey to every caregiver who exited the program between Jan. 1, 2022 and Jan. 31, 2023, successfully reaching 1,339 individuals. OCP reported an 8.7% response rate, receiving replies from 117 former caregivers. Survey responses were anonymous, though participants were given the option to provide their contact information at the end of the survey if they were open to potential, future follow up.
The survey ultimately pointed to a number of factors as leading to the exodus, like business costs, banking and registration fees, municipal and OCP regulations, oversupply, recreational and illicit market competition, lack of testing and tracking, no wholesale relationships, no connection to patients, the pivot to adult-use operations and becoming a dispensary employee.
The majority of respondents (68 respondents) said that oversupply and low prices were their reason for leaving the program, with utility costs (57 respondents) acting as another primary hindrance leading to caregivers’ departure. Business costs (43 respondents), banking regulations and fees (33), and competition (30) followed as the most commonly reported reasons.
“These findings depart dramatically from the rumors and speculation about what has happened within the MMCP,” the survey notes.
It cites part of the “unsubstantiated narrative” centering on caregivers’ dissatisfaction with the OCP and its regulation of the program, though only 16 respondents ranked the OCP’s registration fees in their top five reasons for leaving the program (13.7% of all respondents). Just 15 respondents said that OCP statutes and regulations were a top five reason (12.8% of all respondents). These two answers together only accounted for 7.3% of all responses.
Another unsubstantiated aspect of this story deems that state regulations are too strenuous and costly for most caregivers to operate, though once again, the survey data indicates this is an inaccurate perspective. Of 109 respondents who answered the question, 18 stated that less regulation would have been better for their caregiver business (17.4% of responses). In fact, more respondents (21.1%) said that more regulation would have better protected their caregiver business.
The survey also included an open-ended section, where former caregivers could describe their reasons for leaving. Some were critical of the OCP, while others focused on tax policy as an issue. Though, this section also mirrored the responses, with “significant areas of criticism” centering on five key areas: overproduction/lack of profit, out-of-state money and companies, the success of the recreational market, the presence of and bias toward big business and illegal operations/non-compliant caregivers.
“More regulation of the size of recreational cannabis businesses,” one respondent suggested. “We have allowed big businesses to come in and open recreational cannabis grows and stores. Nobody in the public domain wants to pay $50 for a medical card. Nobody with a small business can afford to compete with the over-saturated market, at a time when prices are going up on electricity and rent (more than double) the recreational market has destroyed medical simply by growing more and dropping prices to rock bottom. Incidentally, our medical market is flooded with caregivers that are forced to sell illegally on the side just to survive in today’s market.”
The survey also noted two respondents who admitted they would consider turning to illegal operations, given that the legal industry “is not profitable.”
“The overproduction in the [Medical Marijuana Caregiver Program] has come as a result of legislative refusal to update the MMCP’s statutes in five years, even as the industry has transformed significantly,” the survey concludes. It calls the findings “eye-opening,” regarding the problems within the MMCP, while offering an “opportunity” for the future.
“[This report] provides a roadmap to enact policy changes that can simultaneously stabilize the medical cannabis market, protect Maine’s 106,000+ medical patients, and ensure a continued uninterrupted supply of medical cannabis.”
