Legislation to allow businesses that would exclusively deliver medical marijuana products to qualified patients has been approved by a key committee in the Utah House of Representatives.
House Bill 389 was approved unanimously yesterday, 11 to 0, through the House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee.
Filed by State Representative Walt Brooks (R), the proposal would authorize “closed-door medical cannabis pharmacies”, described as “means a facility operated by a home delivery medical cannabis pharmacy for delivering cannabis or a medical cannabis product.”
Under current Utah law medical marijuana dispensaries are allowed to delivery products to patients, but a business is not allowed to operate a medical marijuana delivery service without also offering a brick and mortar location that patients can visit.
The proposal states that any closed-door medical cannabis pharmacy “shall ensure that a pharmacy medical provider who is a licensed pharmacist:
(a) is directly supervising the packaging of an order; and
(b) is present in the closed-door medical cannabis pharmacy when an order exits the closed-door medical cannabis pharmacy for delivery.”
An individual who prepares an order at a closed-door medical cannabis pharmacy under the bill must be registered as:
(a) a pharmacy medical provider; or
(b) a medical cannabis pharmacy agent.
A closed-door medical cannabis pharmacy “may authorize an individual who is at least 18 years old and is not a pharmacy medical provider or a cannabis pharmacy agent to access the closed-door medical cannabis pharmacy if the closed-door medical cannabis pharmacy:
(i) tracks and monitors the individual at all times while the individual is at the closed-door medical cannabis pharmacy; and
(ii) maintains a record of the individual’s access, including arrival and departure.
The bill would also establish a “Pharmacy ownership limit”, described as “an amount equal to 30% of the total number of medical cannabis pharmacy licenses issued by the department rounded down to the nearest whole number”.
If passed into law, House Bill 389 would take effect on May 1.
