The Massachusetts Department of Public Health released draft regulations on March 29th. Considered one of the most thorough regulation efforts in medical marijuana states, commonwealth patients meeting low income and other requirements are allowed to grow their own cannabis medicine.

The requirements for patients or their caregiver for growing marijuana include:

• Financial hardship – Defined by 133% of the national poverty level guidelines
• Physical incapacity – to access reasonable transportation
• Lack of MMTC – (Dispensary) within a reasonable distance and lack of delivery service available

Until the expected 35 dispensaries are up and running it’s safe to assume all patients will be allowed to cultivate medical marijuana in Massachusetts. Financial hardship is defined by an individual who is a recipient of MassHealth, or Supplemental Security Income, or the individual’s income does not exceed 133% of the federal poverty level, adjusted for family size. See the accompanying table.

Personal Caregiver means a person, registered by the Department, who is at least 21 years old who has agreed to assist with a registered qualifying patient’s medical use of marijuana, and is not the registered qualifying patient’s certifying physician. Where a registered qualifying patient is under 18 years of age, he or she must have a personal caregiver who is his or her parent or legal guardian. An employee of a hospice provider, nursing, or medical facility providing care to a qualifying patient may serve as a personal caregiver, including to patients under 18 years of age.

Caregivers not working at a medical facility can’t be compensated for any duties or have more than 1 patient. While a qualifying patient can have a limit of 2 caregivers, only one caregiver is allowed to cultivate marijuana for the patient.

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The regulations try to limit the number of patients growing at home by requiring all dispensaries to provide free or low cost marijuana to qualified low income patients. Patients are further limited to possessing a 2 month supply of marijuana, which the agency considers to be 10 ounces. Absent are any plant limits, other than enough to supply the patient for 2 months. Other interesting regulations call for all dispensaries to have vaporizers for sale, dispensaries must grow all their own marijuana and bake their own edibles.

While this guide overviews the regulations concerning Massachusetts patientsgrowing their own medicine, patients considering cultivation are encouraged to read the regulations 725.035: Hardship Cultivation Registration which can be found here.