![]() ![]() ![]() “A lot of people from away know Maine legalized, but don’t realize they can’t buy it here yet. “We started doing this to educate Kittery, to teach them that recreational cannabis isn’t something to freak out about, but it’s turned into a tourist thing, too,” Delaney said. Kittery is home to two Route 1 cannabis shops – Your Green Thumb and Southern Maine Apothecary, a home-based operation that discreetly advertises its presence with a simple, wooden roadside sign – and one cannabis education kiosk run out of a parking lot on most weekends.Ĭaregiver Mitch Delaney is mounting a one-man marijuana informational campaign amid the weekly jam sessions, yoga classes and craft brew tastings that go down in the food truck lot of what’s known as Kittery’s mural building. The Maine Office of Marijuana Policy does expect visiting patients to follow their home state rules, and Maine’s, which would mean a card-carrying New Yorker shouldn’t buy smokable medicine here, but it won’t be policing that aspect of the law, or expect Maine shops to do it, a spokesman said. Patients from those states are often eager to sample Maine’s flower and chocolates. For example, medical marijuana can’t be smoked in New York or Ohio, or eaten in New Jersey. Like most things marijuana, because it’s still illegal on a federal level, every state medical program has a unique set of do’s and don’ts. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographerįor example, an eighth of an ounce of Blue Dream, a wildly popular hybrid marijuana strain favored for daytime treatment of pain, depression and nausea, can be picked up for as little as $33 in Maine, but will set a consumer back $48 in Philadelphia and $50 in Massachusetts. Indico medical marijuana booth in Kittery. Some cannabis products high in THC can create a high for the user, while cannabidiol, or CBD, products that are often made from hemp tout relief without a high. Nationally, most patients use medical marijuana to address chronic pain, tremors and nausea. Until this year, patients had to demonstrate a qualifying condition, like AIDS or Alzheimer’s, to qualify for a doctor’s medical marijuana certification, but now they can get a doctor’s approval for any medical reason. What began in 1999 as a grow-your-own allowance has morphed into a nationally recognized network of eight state-licensed dispensaries and about 2,500 medical marijuana caregivers. The enhanced reciprocity law is the latest change to the state’s 20-year-old medical marijuana program. In June, Maine enacted a new state law making it easier for card-carrying tourists to buy their medical marijuana here, eliminating the need for all that advance paperwork as long as their home state allows them to buy their medicine while traveling out of state. “The visiting patients were initially confused, and then became very angry.’ “I had to turn away many visiting patients last summer, including three people who thought they had completed the process,” McCarrier said. And most tourists know Maine had legalized all forms of adult marijuana use in 2016. Other states have deemed these patients eligible, he noted. Paul McCarrier of Legalize Maine, who operates 1 Mill on Route 1 in Belfast, lobbied to change Maine’s visiting patient system, calling it unnecessary and confusing. Tourists hailing from a state that allowed for medical marijuana use there could get a Maine-issued visiting patient card here, but only the most experienced tourists knew to initiate the lengthy by-mail process in advance of their visit. Until this summer, medical marijuana retailers sold mostly to Mainers. Others, like High and Mighty in Steuben, go for that Down East vibe, inviting rusticators to drive past piles of old lobster traps to sit for a spell on its knotty pine porch. Some, like Beach Boys in South Portland, aim for a modern cannabis retail experience, with a brightly lit interior and a Dunkin’ Donuts next door. But it is Maine’s medical marijuana caregivers that are behind a wave of small retail shops opening since 2016, expanding patient access while pushing legal boundaries. The first of Maine’s eight state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries opened in 2011. ![]() Most of these shops were not even here a year ago. ![]() Maine voters legalized recreational cannabis in 2016, but adult-use sales are not expected to start until March, making medical the only legal marijuana market in Maine – for now. Only those with a state-issued medical card can shop there. Not just any tourist can patronize them, however. ![]()
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