Maine officials report ‘mass exodus’ of caregivers amid rec sales

Maine officials say the number of nurses applying to supply medical cannabis in the state is declining.

The Sun Journal reports that over a quarter of Maine’s businesses in the state’s medicinal cannabis industry have closed in the past two years. Maine regulators pointed to another glaring problem, the loss of janitors, blaming oversupply in the state’s medical industry, among other problems.

The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) spring report describes a “mass exodus” of 1,350 nurses registered with the state to provide medical cannabis to patients.

Despite the many people entering the industry, there was a net loss of about 950 nurses from late 2021 to early 2023. Officials counted 2,070 caregivers as of March 31, according to state data. In 2021, 3,032 nurses were enrolled, and at the peak of the program in 2016, there were 3,257 nurses.

OCP’s most recent survey of former caregivers included open-ended sections that allowed respondents to anonymously describe their reasons for leaving the medicinal cannabis program. See what else past maintainers have shared with us in the full report at https://t.co/5NXJZhWacs. pic.twitter.com/xuVOuvbJuB

— Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (@MaineOCP) April 28, 2023

The report outlines several reasons why they believe caregivers are leaving the program.

“The Maine Medical Use of Cannabis Program (MMCP) saw over 1,350 nurses exit the program from late 2021 to late January 2023,” the report reads. “The impact of this exodus – a net loss of over 800 nurses – has been felt by the remaining nurses and has led to a number of unsubstantiated claims about why this trend has occurred and why nurses continue to leave the programme. Rather than relying on anecdotal evidence, the Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) surveyed former caregivers in early 2023 to better understand why so many registrants left the program.”

The OCP blames the Maine legislature for refusing to update the laws for five years. Although over 1,000 nurses have left the program, the supply has been uninterrupted, proving to the OCP that the market is saturated. The report also highlights high supply and business costs, adult market competition and banking restrictions.

“This survey makes it clear that the medical program’s biggest problem is oversupply,” John Hudak, director of the Office of Cannabis Policy, said in a statement. “This oversupply has resulted in a massive drop in the wholesale price, making it difficult for registrants to endure rising energy costs and other market conditions.”

The report also identifies another problem: caregivers feel constantly threatened and will walk on eggshells to avoid breaking the rules. For example, caregivers say a mandatory track-and-trace system installed under a new law would be too expensive for them. Apparently, many patients have found that they can get cannabis just as easily from adult stores with a government ID.

uprising of nurses

Caregivers were asked in a survey by the OCP to explain why they don’t enroll in the state’s medicinal cannabis program.

“More regulation on the size of recreational cannabis businesses,” wrote one caregiver when asked for public comment. “We allowed big companies to come in and open recreational cannabis grows and businesses. Nobody in the public sector wants to pay $50 for a health card.”

The former caretaker continued: “No one with a small business can afford to compete in the oversaturated market, at a time when prices for electricity and rents are soaring (more than doubling), the leisure market has the medicine destroyed by simply growing more and more falling prices to rock bottom. Incidentally, our medical market is flooded with nurses who are forced to sell illegally on the side just to survive in today’s market.”

However, it is important to note that the caregiver survey response rate was only 8%, or 117 completed surveys out of more than 1,300 individuals contacted. The report identifies several things that need to change for Maine’s medicinal cannabis industry to survive.