AURD Guidance and Plant Sales
One-Note Johnny here, yet again, playing our one note: How does (the latest thing that happened) influence home cultivation?
This time, it’s the Guidance for Adult Use Retail Dispensaries issued by OCM on Friday 10/28. It has some interesting stuff (e.g. ‘on the same road AND within 500 feet of school grounds’ means a lot of property that no one thought would be OK is now suddenly in play), but not much to speak of on the retail sale of seeds and clones.
The only thing that did seem relevant to home growers is in section 8 on page 7. It says:
8. Inventory. Licensees may only offer for sale:
cannabis products obtained from a distributor
cannabinoid hemp products (if licensed to do so);
cannabis paraphernalia;
stationery, gifts, and other minor incedentals;
branded merchandise and apparel containing the licensee’s brand, including jewelry and accessories (in adult sizes only); and
other items as approved by the office.
Note I removed OCM’s emphasis and added my own.
There’s no direct reference to or mention of homegrow or seeds and clones anywhere in the guidelines. However, devoted readers of this blog will recall that article 4 licensees (i.e. adult use) are allowed to sell seeds and clones if they are authorized by the OCM. So if they are authorized to sell seeds and clones, presumably those seeds and clones fall into the catchall category of “other items as approved by the office”.
I think this is probably OK - I’m generally in favor of fewer regulations, rather than more, before the market opens. Let’s wait and see if any problems arise. If they do, then let’s regulate against those problems. If we create regulations on plant sales now, they’ll only address the problems we have imagined in our heads.
That said, we’ll DEFINITELY be submitting a comment about this issue to the OCM when the AURD regs come out - I can already say I’d like a change that includes plants and seeds in inventory, provided they are authorized to sell the plants and seeds by the OCM.