According to officials in Maine, the number of caregivers applying to supply medical cannabis in the state is plummeting.
The Sun Journal reports that over a quarter of Maine businesses in the state’s medical cannabis industry have closed down in the last two years. Maine regulators pointed out another glaring problem, the loss of caretakers, and blamed it on oversupply in the state’s medical industry, among other problems.
The spring report from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) describes a “mass exodus” of 1,350 caregivers who are registered with the state to supply medical-use cannabis for patients.
Despite the number of people joining the industry, from the end of 2021 to the beginning of 2023 there’s been a net loss of about 950 caregivers. Officials counted 2,070 caregivers as of March 31, according to state data. In 2021, there were 3,032 caregivers recorded, and at the program’s peak in 2016, there were 3,257 caregivers.
The report outlines several reasons why they think caregivers are leaving the program.
“The Maine Medical Use of Cannabis Program (MMCP) saw over 1350 caregivers exit the program from the end of 2021 to the end of January 2023,” the report reads. “The impacts of this exodus—a net loss of over 800 caregivers—have been felt by the remaining caregivers and resulted in a number of unsubstantiated claims about why this trend has emerged and why caregivers are continuing to leave the program. Rather than relying on anecdotal evidence, in early 2023, the Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) surveyed former caregivers to gain a better understanding of why so many registrants exited the program.”
The OCP blames Maine lawmakers for refusing to update statutes for five years. Even though over 1,000 caregivers have left the program, supply has been uninterrupted, which the OCP proves the market is oversaturated. The report also highlights steep utility and business costs, competition with the adult-use market, and banking restrictions.
“This survey makes clear that the biggest issue facing the medical program is oversupply,” John Hudak, director of the Office of Cannabis Policy, said in a statement. “That oversupply has led to massive drops in wholesale price, making it difficult for registrants to endure mounting energy costs and other market conditions.”
The report also identifies another problem, that caregivers feel as though they are under constant threat, walking on eggshells, in order to not break any rules. Caregivers say that a mandatory track-and-trace system, installed under a recent law, would be too expensive for them to handle, for instance. Clearly a lot of patients found that they can get cannabis just as easily with a state ID at adult-use businesses.
Caregivers Revolt
Caregivers were asked by the OCP in a survey to explain why they aren’t signing up for the state’s medical cannabis program.
“More regulation of the size of recreational cannabis businesses,” one caregiver wrote when they were asked for public comment. “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.”
The former caregiver continued, “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.”
It’s important to note, however, that the response rate of the caregiver survey was just 8% or 117 completed surveys out of more than 1,300 people who were contacted. The report identifies several things that need to change in order for Maine’s medical cannabis industry to survive.
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