American Consequences - March 2019

Making it illegal for people with possession and sales charges to participate in the industry will, therefore, disproportionately leave communities of color out of Pennsylvania’s industry, not have passed the bill through a referendum of the people, but said, “in the end it didn’t even matter because of the amount of money that was required.” With the average age of farmers on the rise in the U.S. – another challenge facing the industry – the chance to grow cannabis could also draw younger generations into the profession and self-subsidize traditional aspect of agriculture, Brittain said, but, “they’re cutting people like [us] out because we can’t afford it.” Aside from setting the application and permit fees excessively high, Brittain believes Pennsylvania’s lawmakers also made a mistake by not creating a tiered operational system within the industry, which will continue to be a barrier to entry for small farmers. “The main issue is that the Medical Marijuana Law fails to limit cultivation facilities by size,” Brittain wrote in a 2017 letter to legislators. “Every other state goes to great lengths to limit the size of these companies in order to maximize the benefit for everyone.” Brittain used Ohio as an example, which created a tiered permit system based on facility size. The state allowed Level I permits to operate a 15,000-square-foot cultivation area with a $20,000 application fee and $180,000 licensing fee. Level II was allowed

1,600-square-feet and needed to submit $2,000 for the application fee and $18,000 for the licensing fee. Without those tiers, Brittain worries that if recreational use becomes legal, medical cannabis companies will have the opportunity to shift into recreational sales immediately and “other startups will have to wait to be licensed... giving these already massive companies a huge head start.” Nate Wardle, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said the legislature, “did not put a size limit on grow operations... [so] the department [of health] can focus on ensuring that medical marijuana is available for all of the patients who need it to treat serious medical conditions.” INTENTIONAL OR NOT, PENNSYLVANIA’S LAWALSO RESTRICTS ACCESS FOR MINORITIES Aside from being able to afford the fees and have the capital, or “play ball” as Rep. Gainey put it, Pennsylvania’s application process requires applicants to consent to background checks, a fairly common requirement among states who have approved these types of laws. In Pennsylvania, anyone who is financially involved in the medical cannabis industry, or is an employee of a medicinal cannabis company, cannot have been convicted of any criminal offense in the past related to the possession or sale of illegal drugs, narcotics, or controlled substances. And that includes marijuana, which is still considered

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March 2019

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