Last week, the state Department of Health and Human Services announced it had selected three nonprofit groups to operate Maine’s first six medical marijuana dispensaries, bringing more into focus just how medical marijuana will be grown and distributed to patients in Maine.
In Cumberland County, known as District 2, the license was awarded to Northeast Patients Group, which was also awarded licenses for districts 4 (Waldo, Lincoln, Sagahoc and Knox counties), 5 (Somerset and Kennebec counties) and 6 (Penobscot and Piscataquis counties). The group has proposed placing the Cumberland County dispensary in Portland, near Maine Medical Center.
After the announcement, Cathy Cobb, director of the DHHS Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, said she anticipated it would take two to four months before a dispensary was ready for patients.
The selection of dispensary operators was the latest and most significant step in the introduction of large-scale medical marijuana distribution since the dispensaries were approved by referendum at the polls on Nov. 3, 2009.
That measure, which won nearly 59 percent of the vote, as well as the subsequent actions taken to implement the law, can also be seen another way: as incremental steps on the way toward the legalization of marijuana.
The issue has been creeping along this path for some time. Maine and many other states have moved over the years to decriminalize marijuana, by making possession a civil, rather than criminal, offense and making a lower priority of prosecuting offenders. Attitudes toward marijuana use have shifted to something approaching wide acceptance, as even many of the people who believe it to be a waste of time do not see it as a danger to society.
To be sure, more than a few roadblocks lay across the path to legalization, not the least of which is the federal government. Though the Obama administration has advised federal prosecutors not to pursue the prosecution of growers of medical marijuana, the Bush administration did so with vigor. And federal dollars still in large part fund the vast, wasteful eradication efforts that make headlines in Maine every year.
But it is striking how much the debate on this issue has changed. For public officials, the disclosure of past marijuana use not too long ago put careers in jeopardy. Now, that kind of news is quickly forgotten. In the very recent past, efforts to legalize marijuana were dismissed outright. Now, it is seen as a way to fill budget gaps, both by taxing marijuana and eliminating millions of dollars now wasted on the fruitless war on drugs.
The changes of the past decade or two make it clear that restrictions on marijuana likely will only get more loose, until legalization becomes the next logical step. As Maine now debates how to best regulate and distribute marijuana for medical purposes, we would be wise to take notes, as we will likely be going through a similar process with outright legalization in the not-too-distant future.
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