Jody H. Lehrer, JD, MPA - Comments on amendments to 105 CMR 725
January 2, 2017
These are my comments relative to the proposed amendments to the Department of Public Health regulations at 105 CMR 725, Implementation of an Act for the Humanitarian Medical Use of Marijuana. Some comments are technical in nature and others substantive. Section numbers are provided with the commentary following the section numbers.
725.004: Definitions
Under the definition for "Final RMD Certificate of Registration" the "s" is missing at the end of the word "inspection."
725.021: Registration of Caregiving Institution
In subsection E, should the word "produced" be changed to "provided"?
... such records should be produced to the Department upon request as permitted by law.
725.025: Responsibilities of Caregivers
Under (A)(2), where the things that a a "personal caregiver" may not do there is listed one of the things that an "institutional caregiver" may not do that should be moved to (B)(2) where the things that an "institutional caregiver" may not do are listed.
Specifically, the language "In the case of a visiting nurse, personal care attendant, or home health aide serving as a personal caregiver, such person may not receive payment or compensation above and beyond his or her regular wages." would be make more sense under (B)(2).
725.03: Registration of Independent Testing Laboratories
The regulations at 725.
725.100: Registration of Registered Marijuana Dispensaries
Comment 1:
Under subsection (C) change the word "a" to "an."
"to operate "an" RMD, in the name of the non-profit corporation.
Comment 2:
725.100(B)(1)(c)-(d) addresses some of the required information to be submitted as part of Phase 1 of the application to become an RMD. DPH deletes 725.100(B)(1)(c)-(e) and relocates them to Phase 2 of the application process where they appear as 725.100(B)(3)(u)(6)(ii)-(iv).
It appears that these relocated provisions are the ones that DPH refers to in its PowerPoint of September 14. 2016, Proposed Amendments to 105 CMR 725.00: Implementation of an Act for the Humanitarian Medical Use of Marijuana () when DPH states, on Slide 12 that it will "Move background check information to the management and operations phase of the applications process." This is to the average person a difficult thing to determine as none of the three current required paper submittals to DPH for applying to become an RMD (i.e., the Application of Intent, Management and Operation Profile, and Siting Profile) are ever mentioned by name in the regulations as they currently exist or as they are proposed through these amendments. Now is the time to specifically identify the names of the required submittals referred to above within the regulations themselves.
This would go a long way towards embodying "...common sense reforms to simplify and clarify the regulation and emphasize the program’s ongoing goal of being transparent, streamlined, and efficient." (Ibid).
725.105: Operational Requirements for Registered Marijuana Dispensaries
Under 725.105(A), it is stated that "Every RMD shall have and follow a set of detailed written operating procedures. If the RMD has a second location, ..." I presume the regulations are referring to cultivation/processing facility as one location and and the dispensing location as the other? It is unclear. If by location, the DPH regulations refer to that a non profit may operate more than one RMD (e.g., Patriot Care Corp will operate three RMDs) then three - not two - locations is the correct language and each RMD should have operating provisions available.
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