Pharmacy employees don’t need to be on Vicodin to legally dispense prescription opiates, but anyone who works at a medicinal cannabis dispensary has to be a medical marijuana patient.

Many in the industry say the long-standing requirement is outdated and even absurd, especially since California was the first state in the country to allow for the medicinal use of cannabis and is finally poised to start regulating the multibillion-dollar industry.

“Right now it would be nice if we could just hire the best person for the job,” said Debby Goldsberry, executive director of Magnolia Wellness, an Oakland club dispensary. “My bookkeeper has to be a medical marijuana patient. It’s limiting the collective’s ability to be professional and serve our patients in the highest manner.”

Legal experts call the requirement a vestige of the earliest medical cannabis laws. They say it also offers protection from federal law, which continues to prohibit marijuana use and distribution.

“If you don’t have a qualifying patient card, you could be in deep trouble,” said Allison Margolin, a criminal defense attorney with an expertise in federal and state marijuana laws.

When California voters in 1996 passed Proposition 215, known as the Compassionate Use Act, laws were created that established “patient collectives,” nonprofit groups that were able bypass the federal prohibition on marijuana use and cultivation by limiting consumption and distribution to fellow patients or their caregivers. To be a member of a collective, individuals have to have a doctor’s recommendation. (Under medical marijuana regulations, doctors “recommend” cannabis rather than prescribe it.)

Different requirements

Other industries generally don’t place such requirements on their employees, said Margolin, a partner of Margolin & Lawrence, a law firm with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. “How does it make sense that somebody should be on a drug if they are to distribute it?”

Over the years, California’s medicinal marijuana industry grew and expanded from homegrown clubs to slick retail operations like Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, which is widely considered one of the world’s largest medical cannabis dispensaries. What hasn’t yet changed is the nonprofit setting and the patient requirement.

Last fall, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a package of bills that will regulate all aspects of the industry, from licensing and taxation to quality control and shipping, and will no longer require businesses to be nonprofit collectives. The state is also expected to have recreational adult marijuana use on the November ballot which, if passed, won’t require users to get a doctor’s note.

Back to Gallery Why medical marijuana employees need a doctor’s note to... 5 1 of 5 Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle 2 of 5 Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle 3 of 5 Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle 4 of 5 Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle 5 of 5 Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle









Must have a card

But it’s unclear how quickly these changes will happen. The industry regulations don’t go in effect until 2018. And marijuana continues to remain illegal under federal law.

So to avoid running afoul of the law — be it getting stopped by the police while delivering medical cannabis or getting caught in a federal raid at a dispensary — lawyers say it’s wise for anyone involved in the industry to have a medical marijuana card.

“It is the one piece of documentation that when you show to the cop, the cop will say … I’m not going to mess with you,” said Hilary Bricken, a partner with the Seattle law firm Harris Moure, who heads firm’s cannabis law group. “If I’m an employee and don’t have that (card) and get pulled over … I’m not going to be instantly afforded the benefit of what’s called an affirmative defense, which is an excuse for violating the law.”

Since California led the way for medical marijuana use, more than 20 other states have passed similar laws. The states of Alaska, Colorado, Washington and Oregon have also made the substance legal for recreational use.

Bricken said other states generally don’t require employees to be “patients,” and noted that the rule undermines the herb’s medicinal claims. “It’s hard to say it’s legally a medicine when it’s treated like an employment condition, and you are able-bodied and in good health,” she said.

‘So many hoops’

Candace Wiggins has two jobs in the cannabis industry. She didn’t need to be a patient for her job as a receptionist for Green Rush Consulting in Oakland, which offers licensing and other advice on opening cannabis businesses, but she had to have the card to work as an office manager at the Berkeley delivery service StashTwist.

“I think it silly we have to jump through so many hoops,” she said. “I kind of only got my card because I wanted to work in the industry.”

But Wiggins, who has suffered from depression, said she’s managed to wean herself completely off antidepressants. “Honestly I didn’t realize it was going to help so much,” she said, adding that she would be reluctant to take advice from dispensary workers who did not use the products.

Still, some employers said they would welcome the opportunity to shed the “patient” requirement.

Goldsberry, of Magnolia Wellness, said she recently hired a registered nurse to work in the dispensary. While she was able to find a qualified applicant who also happens to be a patient, Goldsberry said the requirement is limiting. She said she can’t even interview a job candidate in person at the dispensary who doesn’t have a patient card.

“Maybe the best person for the job doesn’t have an existing medical condition,” she said. “We just want the most qualified employee serving our patients.”

Cards easy to get

Michael Ray, director of Bloom Farms, said the patient card hasn’t been a hurdle for the San Francisco medical cannabis company. He said virtually all 25 employees, with the exception of possibly the security guard, are patients because they come in contact with the company’s vape pens and other products.

Ray, a board member of the California Cannabis Industry Association, added it’s easy to get a prescription card. “It should be easy to get a medical recommendation,” he said. “We have plenty of other substances that are legal and don’t need a doctor’s recommendation, and yet they kill millions of people a year.”

While many people use cannabis for serious health conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy, it’s clear the vast majority are using it for “therapeutic” rather than medicinal purposes, said Amanda Reiman, manager of marijuana law and policy at the Drug Policy Alliance in Berkeley.

“There are certain things in place that are really relics and old paradigms that are just hanging around,” she said. “They won’t be here forever.”

Making do

Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said it’s unclear how long the transition under the new regulatory laws will take. The industry will make do in the meantime under the old rules.

“I can’t recall an instance of somebody who came to me to say ‘I want to be in the industry, but I can’t because I don’t have a medical marijuana card,’” he said.

Victoria Colliver is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vcolliver@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @vcolliver