9 Months to Go

As some of you know, the MRTA says that the “adult use” homegrow regs are due 18 months after the first dispensary sale. Since the first dispensary sale was December 28, the adult use homegrow regs are due on June 28 of 2024. Which means we are about halfway there.

A couple of things - I put “adult use” in quotes because we should step away from the assumption that homegrow is for adult use; people grow for a lot of different reasons. Ornamental, aromatic, just for fun. I personally do it just to see what happens. The assumption that it is for “use” lends to the (incorrect) conclusion that homegrow contributes to the unregulated market and increases youth access. It doesn’t. So I propose we call it something else. My thinking is that if we want to end the assumption that it is going to end up in the unregulated market, we have to move away from the assumption that someone is growing because they are going to smoke it, even if they are. Let people grow! Mind your own business about what they do with it.

Second, we really need these regs before June 28. The regs are due ‘on or before’ June 28, so we don’t need to wait until the last day. In fact, we shouldn’t wait. If the OCM first proposes the homegrow regs on June 28, they will not be done until the 60 day waiting period, plus another month or two to review comments, and then another 45 day waiting period, and then another wait… - if they are first proposed on the day they are due, we’ll be lucky to have final regs before the end of the year. Which means we will miss the entire summer growing season in 2024!!!!!

Plus companies need some time to get up and running before the grow season. They’ll need to get their license in order, plus a few weeks to get the pipeline of plants going, and then they can start getting ready to sell plants. (A tip for the retailers out there - if you are selling to beginners, sell seedlings, not seeds or clones.) They should be putting plants on the shelf on June 30, not reading the proposed regulations.

I’d personally like to see proposed regs in January or February at the latest. That way, we can have plenty of time for a successful growing season next summer.

We’ll need to get moving if we want to OCM to move those regs forward in time for that to happen. I’ll discuss it with the group on Friday and post an update or some thoughts. Meanwhile, let me know what you think we should call “adult use” homegrow.