Signed by Governor Gary Herbert

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that establishes rules for the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana.

Highlights:

• Requires the Department of Agriculture and Food to ensure that the cultivation of marijuana in the state for academic or medical research purposed and ensure that marijuana grown in the state may be processed into a medicinal dosage form, by January 1, 2019 (Sec. 3).

• Requires the Department to make rules to ensure marijuana cultivated in the state is cultivated from state-approved seed sources and that a private entity contracted to cultivate marijuana has sufficient security protocols (Sec. 4).

• Requires the Department to make rules governing an entity that puts marijuana into medicinal dosage form, including standards for health and safety (Sec. 4).

• Requires the Department to establish a state dispensary by July 1, 2019, that will (Sec. 5):

• Receive and sell the marijuana that has been processed into a medicinal dosage to any of the following purchasers:

• A qualified academic research institution; 

• A qualified medical research institution; or

• A patient with a recommendation to try marijuana from the patient’s physician.

• Requires the Department, in conjunction with the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, establish standards for labeling marijuana that has been processed into a medicinal dosage form and is being sold at the state dispensary (Sec. 6).

• Requires the Department to set a price schedule for marijuana that has been processed into a medicinal dosage form and sold at the state dispensary (Sec. 7).

• Specifies that the price schedule should take the following into consideration (Sec. 7):

• The demand for the product; 

• The labor required to cultivate and process the product into a medicinal dosage form; and

• The regulatory burden involved in the creation of the product.

• Requires the Department to make rules to determine whether an entity engaged in academic or medical research qualified to purchase marijuana, and on how the state dispensary will provide information to a patient’s physician after a patient purchases marijuana from the state dispensary (Sec. 8).

• Prohibits a person from acting as a cannabis payment processor without a license issued by the Department (Sec. 12).

• Defines “cannabis payment processor” as a person that facilitates payment (Sec. 11):

• Without using cash; 

• Electronically; and 

• Between a marijuana producer and an entity engaged in academic or medical research. 

Full Bill Text