PA issues temporary rules for MMJ growers, producers

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Pennsylvania’s Department of Health has issued temporary regulations for medical marijuana growers and processors, and some noteworthy changes have been made from the draft version issued in August.

However, the regulations are good for only a 24-month period, and a different set of rules could be established by the time medical cannabis is expected to hit the market in the third quarter of 2018, said Steve Schain, an attorney who practices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

“These regs may have little permanent impact,” Schain wrote in an email to Marijuana Business Daily.

Perhaps the most significant change in the temporary regulations for growers and processors is in the 30-day inventory import window set up by the state. The previous draft allowed businesses to import only seeds from out of state to start their inventory; the new regulations allow the import of both seeds and immature plants to get inventories going.

The previous draft mandated that growers include a diversity hiring plan in their application, while the new regulations mandate that they devise a plan to create an equal opportunity hiring plan.

Also, the previous draft said anyone whose application was rejected in another state could also be disqualified in Pennsylvania, while the new regulations no longer explicitly disqualify someone whose application was rejected in another state

Lastly, the new rules increase the time growers have to get their cultivation sites operational from 60 to 90 days and also expand the number of growing districts in the state from three to six.