Maine’s Attorney General is letting medical marijuana caregivers and dispensaries know that their office will not prosecute them for selling pre-rolled cannabis joints. In October the Office of Cannabis Policy released a document to help answer questions about the sale of tobacco products. The document included pre-rolled cannabis joints in a list of tobacco products. This interpretation upset many small caregivers who would now need a retail tobacco license and physical storefront in order to sell pre-rolls to patients.
In a memo to Interim Director Vern Malloch dated November 16th, Maine’s Attorney General Aaron Frey said that existing law offers no clear answer to the question of whether pre-rolled cannabis cigarettes are “tobacco products” that can only be sold by businesses with a retail tobacco license. Due to the ambiguities in Maine law Attorney General Frey has asked the legislature to clarify this issue in the upcoming session. Until then the Attorney General has made it clear that he will not prosecute regulated businesses who provide pre-rolled cannabis joints to qualifying patients. The Office of Cannabis Policy shared the memo with stakeholders in Maine’s medical cannabis industry and briefly thanked the Attorney General for taking the time to clarify this issue.
Read the entire memo from Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey here:
