FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bipartisan group of lawmakers introduce legislation to address disastrous Rule changes

from the Office of Marijuana Policy

March 24, 2021

After a tumultuous public hearing on the Mills administration’s proposed rules, which would
radically overhaul Maine's world-class medical marijuana program, Rep. Lynne Williams (D –
Bar Harbor) and Senate President Troy Jackson (D – Allagash) have introduced LD 1242 ‘An
Act To Ensure Appropriate Oversight of Maine's Medical Marijuana Program’, placing a
moratorium on rule changes and ensuring that the process for future changes includes the voices
of patients, caregivers and health professionals with experience in treating patients with cannabis
in Maine.

“I want to thank Sen. Jackson, Rep. Dillingham, Sen. Hickman and my colleagues from all
different political walks of life for their support of this bill and this effort to protect Maine’s
incredibly valuable Medical Marijuana Program.,” said Rep. Williams. “This bill will allow the
legislature to hear from some of the thousands of Maine patients and caregivers who would be
negatively impacted if these rules take effect, and I am happy to be able to offer them another
path forward to maintain their businesses and their patient care.”

Rep. Williams’ bill was released following Monday’s 7.5-hour hearing, where Mainers
repeatedly and overwhelmingly rejected OMP’s Proposed Rules. Lawmakers from eight
different counties including Democrats, Republicans, and Independents signed on to the bill to
support Maine’s homegrown medical marijuana industry.

The goal of the bill, broadly, is to address the repeated refusal by the Office of Marijuana Policy
(OMP) to include the input and best practices of Maine’s longstanding, skilled, homegrown
medical marijuana community. OMP’s reliance on consultants and lobbyists using models from
states with less robust and less successful medical programs, who are tied to giant multinational
corporations, has resulted in rules that would push many of the small and medium caregivers out
of business and pass unreasonable costs onto patients.

Further, LD 1242 will address the fact that the rules proposed by OMP go beyond the purview of
routine technical changes and instead change policy in ways that require legislative approval and
a more robust public process.

During the hearing, dozens of patients, caregivers and others blasted OMP’s proposed changes,
which would raise prices for patients and bankrupt hundreds if not thousands of small caregivers
who form the bedrock of Maine’s economy alongside seafood and tourism as the biggest
agricultural commodity in the state. In 2020, the nearly 3,000 caregivers in Maine’s Medical

CONTACT: Alysia Melnick at amelnick@bernsteinshur.com 207-939-4190

Marijuana Program brought in more than $15 million in tax revenue, sold well over $225 million
in goods and directly employed over five thousand Mainers.

“As I know it, the Maine medical marijuana program is an exemplary beacon of hope for those
with cancer, epilepsy, and other life threatening and debilitating illnesses. It is a job creator in the
rural and urban areas of the state”, said Arleigh Kraus, a Warren, Maine farmer and medical
marijuana caregiver. “These rule changes will make it harder and more expensive for patients I
have personally helped for years to get the medicine they need. I hope that the lawmakers
reviewing changes to Maine’s thriving medical marijuana industry see the harm these changes
will do to family farmers in Maine.”

Patients and caregivers complained about the unbalanced influence of giant multinational
corporations in Maine's medical marijuana rules. Notably, only attorneys representing Curaleaf,
a Russian-billionaire-backed company aiming to be the ‘Frito-Lay’ of cannabis, supported the
OMP’s Proposed Rule. Curaleaf operates two of Maine’s 8 dispensaries and an Adult Use store
in Bangor with more planned.

Mark Barnett, Executive Chair of the Maine Craft Cannabis Association, highlighted the
backwards thinking behind the push: “These rules would cost small businesses upwards of
$50,000 each and in some case multiples of that, somehow funded only by debt, resulting in well
over $100 million in higher costs to patients. How could you possibly believe Mainers can afford
this right now? Where is the data sufficient to justify this apparent class war? We haven’t seen it,
because it doesn’t exist.”

CONTACT: Alysia Melnick at amelnick@bernsteinshur.com 207-939-4190