Paul McCarrier admits that his current job growing cannabis for patients as a medical marijuana caregiver is a bit different from raising vegetables and flowers in the backyard.
“I’ve done some gardening before, but this is different from traditional agriculture,” he said.
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Paul McCarrier, Up Close
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? Working at All About Games, a non-electronic gaming store, in Belfast.
WHAT ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT? The regulatory hurdles we have to face and if Wall Street legalization comes to state.
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT? Prayer and hard work.
WHAT’S THE BEST BUSINESS ADVICE YOU CAN OFFER OTHERS? Don’t forget your neighbors and your community because, even in your business fails, they’re going to be there.
As a caregiver – the designation used by the state of Maine for licensed growers of medical marijuana – McCarrier can supply up to five patients at a time. He is a medical marijuana user himself, a board member of Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine and is active in lobbying the Legislature for changes in laws governing medical marijuana, which were adopted in a citizen-initiated vote in 2009.
Q: What attracted you to being a caregiver and growing medical marijuana?
A: The fact that it’s multifaceted, it’s a job and jobs are hard to come by in rural Maine. And not only can I help people, but I work for myself and work on the land. I also saw a lot of people addicted to OxyContin as I grew up. So I saw this as an opportunity to show people there’s another way (to manage medical symptoms and pain).
Q: There are efforts to have Maine follow the lead of Colorado and Washington and legalize the possession of marijuana. How would that affect the medical marijuana market?
A: Recreational marijuana is a bear of a subject. If we go with the national model, it would have a drastic, negative effect on the medical marijuana program. In Colorado, they’re not getting the taxes they expected from recreational marijuana sales. Sales are drastically lower than expected, so they’re looking at trying to move medical marijuana patients to the recreational market. The other big problem with the Colorado model is it’s set up for corporate, big-money types to get the (growing) licenses. Big tobacco has absorbed a lot of the licenses. (In Maine) we’re working on our own legalization measures so the medical marijuana market won’t be affected (if recreational marijuana is legalized). We’d like to lower the tax rate, for instance. Currently, the tax for medical marijuana is 5.5 percent. I don’t believe medical marijuana should be taxed. We don’t tax other drugs and that should also apply to medical marijuana.
Q: What are some of the challenges that caregivers currently face?
A: The biggest issue is one I get from patients, about not getting their provider of choice. Caregivers are limited to five patients at a time. I have to tell people I can’t provide for you because we’re limited by state law. That’s something we’re going to look at in the next legislative session.
Q: How difficult is it to grow marijuana?
A: Even though it’s a weed and can grow anywhere, you have to have a controlled environment for medical marijuana. And you have to battle the weather and give them the correct nutrients to get the correct strain. We can only have a certain number of plants (18 per patient), so if I try to tailor a strain to a particular patient, I may have a problem. It can be a six- to eight-month process to tailor the plant to the patient. It takes from eight to 12 weeks to produce a specific strain. To ensure you can provide the medicine consistently, you keep a plant as a “mother plant” and clone off that plant to get as close as possible to the original medicine.
I cultivate in an indoor environment: I converted my garage as the initial space and then added on to that. I live in Waldo County, with a three-acre plot. I have neighbors, but even though they’re not close by, I have an air infiltration system so I won’t bother them. I lead a quiet life. It’s the best state in the nation to be a medical marijuana patient and, for me, the most important thing is to be a good neighbor.
Q: How did you learn to grow and clone the plants?
A: I have been taking continuing education courses with Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine. It’s also a lot of reading on my own.
Q: What do you charge?
A: I have a sliding scale based on income, but it’s generally $250 an ounce. There are some patients I work with who are low income, and a (Maine) bill in 2013 allows a caregiver to give it away to patients. So we’re able to donate some now. But if we could have more patients (I could make more money), which would allow me to give it to some really low-income patients for free, and also provide other services, like making deliveries.
Q: Do you also sell to dispensaries?
A: No, because the number of dispensaries is determined by the state and that gives them significant control over the market.
Q: Is there good money in being a medical marijuana caregiver?
A: I have another job, but you can make a living if you work hard at it. You can make $30,000 to $40,000 a year, but there are expenses, such as the nutrients, your power bill. You can try to save money by growing in an outdoor environment (in a greenhouse), but there are issues with climate control.
We’re also limited to only one employee, so having more than one would be a great help, especially at harvest time. It’s a lot of hours then, and it’s all hand work.
Q: How do people react when you tell them what you do?
A: It depends on what part of the state you’re in and the type of people you’re dealing with. With an older crowd, some people don’t take you seriously and say you must be a drug dealer, but with a younger crowd, it’s cool. There’s still kind of a stigma attached to it, but it’s changing and it’s becoming a mainstream job and we see more people accepting of it and saying it’s great.
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