The Maine Department of Health and Human Services released a set of proposed new rules for the state’s medical marijuana program Wednesday in response to a law passed last year that loosened existing state laws.

The proposed rules would be the first update since 2010, the year the program was implemented by the department after Maine residents voted in 2009 to establish state-licensed dispensaries to distribute marijuana and a state identification system to keep track of patients in the program.

L.D. 1296, signed in 2011 by Gov. Paul LePage and sponsored by Rep. Deborah Sanderson, R-Chelsea, made the identification system optional, among other changes.

The state has been broadly working under that law since last year, but without updated rules.

A letter from licensing services Director Kenneth Albert to interested parties, provided to the MaineToday Media newspapers by John Thiele, medical marijuana program director for DHHS’ Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, summarizes proposed changes to existing rules. It includes the relaxation of the registry and related provisions, such as expunging patient medical information from state records.

It also affirms that law enforcement officers can’t seize marijuana belonging to a patient, caregiver or dispensary “except when necessary for an ongoing criminal or civil investigation,” but says they can seize marijuana over the legal limit for those groups.

Overall, Sanderson said she was happy with the proposed rules. But she and one of Maine’s top caregiver advocates question one piece of the proposed language — the piece that specifies the type of facility marijuana must be grown in.

“I just want to make sure we do it right the first time,” she said. “I’m … thrilled they acknowledged the intent (of her bill) was for folks to grow outside.”

Paul McCarrier, legislative liaison for Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine, said the section of the rules defining an “enclosed locked facility” are overburdening for small-time growers.

The proposed rules say all marijuana cultivation, even outdoors, would have to be behind at least an 8-foot-high privacy fence that totally obscures the product, with exterior lighting “sufficient to deter nuisance activity and facilitate surveillance.”

It also would have to be located at the grower’s place of residence.

“Most fences go six feet,” Sanderson said. “If you go eight feet, that’s going to cost above and beyond.”

McCarrier said his group wants to change certain aspects of proposed rules, including the structural restrictions.

The sheet Thiele provided said a public hearing on the proposed rules is set for 1 p.m. Aug. 13 in the Health and Human Services Committee Room 209 in the Cross Office Building in Augusta. The deadline for public comment on proposed changes is Aug. 23.

Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Michael Shepherd can be contacted at 621-5632 or at:

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