Earlier this month we revealed state plans to end medical cannabis as we know it: to reduce patient possession limits, remove patient growing rights, and eliminate certain defenses for medical cannabis patients charged with pot crimes.

This afternoon the state’s medical cannabis workgroup—comprised of the liquor board, health department, revenue department, and the governor’s office—released their formal recommendations, and they are just as drastic as we initially revealed.

The basic idea is that the voter-approved medical cannabis law would be mostly scrapped, and patients who are accepted into a proposed government registry would be allowed tax deductions exemptions on pot, which could only be purchased at I-502 stores. Among the recommendations:

  • Eliminate patient home growing rights
  • Eliminate collective gardens
  • Eliminate medical dispensaries that don’t comply with I-502
  • Eliminate the affirmative defense for pot patients
  • Create a state-funded patient registry program
  • Require health care professionals to register patients with the state
  • Forbid doctors from running a medical cannabis specific business
  • Remove the right to petition for new medical marijuana conditions
  • Reduce patient possession amounts from 24 ounces to 3 ounces
  • Allow I-502 stores to sell reduced-tax pot to registered patients