As a grower, how do you deal with incoherent/wacky state laws covering growing and possession?

[BII]

How do you keep legal (or not) in a State with possession limits so low and other laws/regulations such that growing is essentially impossible?

For ex., in Maryland, a 'legal' state, a regular household can grow 2 plants and household with a patient can grow 4 (total plants at all stages) - low nos. but at least can grow. "Personal use" possession (fully legal) is limited to 1.5 oz., and "civil use" possession (up to $250 fine) runs from 1.5-2.5 oz., after which possession becomes a criminal offense (but not a felony). But what does a grower do if harvesting a plant bearing say 3 dry oz. (criminal possession right there), and what if 2 or 4 such plants are harvested? Obviously, it's illegal to 'gift' all these ounces, such as even give them to multiple needy patients, with that being manufacturing and dealing.

I simply ignore the regs (presume will not be bothered since I don't sell), such as grow 6 plants at a time, have a very criminally illegal personal stash, etc. But how would a grower who wants or needs to keep everything legal actually do this? For ex., what does the grower do with all the 'excess' cannabis illegally in his/her possession? Do buds become illegal possession while on the plant or only after harvested? Are we supposed to only grow less than 1 oz./plant, remove most buds during bloom to attain that, or what?

How do these things work where you are?

 

[Frankthetank]

Usually, the laws state “you can grow X number of plants, and have the cannabis from them”….

The specific limits are for how much you can get from a dispensary, or carry on you/in your car.

Obviously, if someone is checking…. You probably already did something wrong, otherwise…. How would anyone know, like you say.


This is copy and pasted directly off the state website for where I am…. Most other states have similar I think…


At one time, licensed patients can legally possess:
• Up to 3 oz. (84.9 g) of marijuana on their person
• 6 mature marijuana plants and the harvested marijuana
• 6 seedling plants
• 1 oz. (28.3 g) of concentrated marijuana
• 8 oz. (226.4 g) of marijuana in your residence
• 72 oz. (2,037.6 g) of edible marijuana
• 72 oz. of topical marijuana

 

[BII]

Usually, the laws state “you can grow X number of plants, and have the cannabis from them”….

The specific limits are for how much you can get from a dispensary, or carry on you/in your car.

In Maryland, the relevant law is stupidly short and overly simplistic (politicians wrote it), with no qualifications or exceptions.

Your laws are much more grower- and consumer-friendly or otherwise rational. For ex., 8 oz. possession/residence is way better than 1.5 oz. But even in a much more enlightened state, or one that has simply had more years to refine it laws/regs, there is still significant disconnection between legal possession limits and what growing the legal amount of plants typically yields.

So where you live, can you possess, store in one spot in your residence, say for ex. over 1-1/4 pound/20 oz. of buds, such as if you harvest/dry/cure 6 legal plants each yielding an average of 3.5 oz.? (Again presuming the grower wants to be fully legal), what is the grower expected to do if they see they will likely harvest say 2 lbs. from their 6 mature plants (expected to cut off most buds in early bloom, or what)? Once you have your over-the-limit harvest in hand, what are you allowed or supposed to do with the illegal excess? Are growers allowed to 'gift' up to the 3 oz. possession limit to say ≥6-7 or more recipients without this being considered manufacture/dealing? Or where you are, is all of this moot, irrelevant, such as nobody enforces any of this against 'non-criminal' home growers.

 

[Frankthetank]

In Maryland, the relevant law is stupidly short and overly simplistic (politicians wrote it), with no qualifications or exceptions.

Your laws are much more grower- and consumer-friendly or otherwise rational. For ex., 8 oz. possession/residence is way better than 1.5 oz. But even in a much more enlightened state, or one that has simply had more years to refine it laws/regs, there is still significant disconnection between legal possession limits and what growing the legal amount of plants typically yields.

So where you live, can you possess, say store in one spot in your residence, over 1-1/4 pound/20 oz. of buds, such as if you harvest/dry/cure 6 legal plants each yielding an average of 3.5 oz.? (Again presuming the grower wants to be fully legal), what is the grower expected to do if they harvest say 2 lbs. from their 6 mature plants (expected to cut off most buds in early bloom, or what)? Are growers allowed to 'gift' up to the 3 oz. possession limit to say ≥6-7 or more recipients without this being considered manufacture/dealing?

You can possess anything that you harvest from your legal plants… as it states…. 6 mature plants and the harvested marijuana.

 

[Jpkindbud]

In my state (ny) I believe I understand the law(s)… maybe not.

6 plants in flower and 6 in veg per adult in home (up to two adults)
Travel possession- 3oz (within state)
Storage- 5 lb total per household.
Not sure on concentrates and extracts(topical or otherwise)
NY did it right in this aspect…
The dispensaries and growers for such are the ones who got screwed… super hard to get a license to sell, and the growers have to jump thru multiple hoops to get it to dispensaries. Purity of said cannabis is extreme… ppm of heavy metals, etc. if it doesn’t meet requirements it is junk… can’t sell the flower. But could be used for concentrates as the process eliminates the existence of said HM. That’s all I “know” as a personal use individual I am not concerned with the other laws for production and sales.

 

[BII]

You can possess anything that you harvest from your legal plants… as it states…. 6 mature plants and the harvested marijuana.

OK, so in NY can legally possess up to 5 lb./household. But what does the state expect home growers to do with all that cannabis? Surely you can't sell it. Can you legally give it away to patients, friends, etc.?

Changing topic a little: Are there areas in the US (or anywhere) with organized (fully legal or not) farmers markets, swap meets, flea markets, crafts shows, cannabis clubs, areas/booths at large outdoor concerts, etc. including regular home growers openly selling or trading what they've grown? If nothing else, it's be nice to be able to trade small amounts with other growers, do some socializing; and getting some cost recovery ($) would be good too.

 

[Entombed]

OK, so in NY can legally possess up to 5 lb./household. But what does the state expect home growers to do with all that cannabis? Surely you can't sell it. Can you legally give it away to patients, friends, etc.?

I think they are just giving leeway to the guys who can grow really well. A guy who can get a few grams off a plant is way different than a guy who can pull a 1lb. Would suck to run foul of the law just for having one nice plant exceed the limit. From what I've seen gifting is limited to pretty small amounts. But yeah, I dunno what you would do with several pounds.

Changing topic a little: Are there areas in the US (or anywhere) with organized (fully legal or not) farmers markets, swap meets, flea markets, crafts shows, cannabis clubs, areas/booths at large outdoor concerts, etc. including regular home growers openly selling or trading what they've grown? If nothing else, it's be nice to be able to trade small amounts with other growers, do some socializing; and getting some cost recovery ($) would be good too.

Never seen it yet. I do see lots of stands with huge pot leafs selling questionable things. Would be really cool to see what small time craft growers can do.

 

[Bruce Campbell]

How do you keep legal (or not) in a State with possession limits so low and other laws/regulations such that growing is essentially impossible?

The short answer is - check with your state regulatory agency and contact them when in doubt:

Adult-Use Cannabis FAQs

An official website of the State of Maryland.

cannabis.maryland.gov

About Us

An official website of the State of Maryland.

cannabis.maryland.gov

VA had that same 'but, I can harvest more from one plant than I'm legally allowed to possess' issue at first. IIRC, our state regulator eventually clarified / issued a statement / etc to the effect of 'yeah, we mean that's how much you can possess outside your home, not have in your home from private cultivation.'

OK, so in NY can legally possess up to 5 lb./household. But what does the state expect home growers to do with all that cannabis? Surely you can't sell it. Can you legally give it away to patients, friends, etc.?

Changing topic a little: Are there areas in the US (or anywhere) with organized (fully legal or not) farmers markets, swap meets, flea markets, crafts shows, cannabis clubs, areas/booths at large outdoor concerts, etc. including regular home growers openly selling or trading what they've grown? If nothing else, it's be nice to be able to trade small amounts with other growers, do some socializing; and getting some cost recovery ($) would be good too.

Now you're getting into the 'charitable exchange' aspects. Those are typically 'you can gift or share with individuals, but you can't exchange for money, goods, or services, etc.' But, again, the specifics vary from state to state.

You can check facebook to see if there's any local clubs, etc, in your area. When VA first legalized, there was a cannabis-friendly brew pub down the street that let some people organize a weekly get-together to share / exchange. Basically, one of those 'reserved for private function' things on slow weekdays. Not sure if they still do, and ultimately depends on how tolerant the local business, law enforcement, residents are, etc. May have been one of those 'we'll tolerate it at first, until someone complains' things.

Another option is if you have any grow-shops in your area. One near me does a community outreach program where they put growers in contact with disabled and veteran medical users to share / help grow / etc.

 

[BII]

The short answer is - check with your state regulatory agency and contact them when in doubt:

Adult-Use Cannabis FAQs

An official website of the State of Maryland.

cannabis.maryland.gov

About Us

An official website of the State of Maryland.

cannabis.maryland.gov

VA had that same 'but, I can harvest more from one plant than I'm legally allowed to possess' issue at first. IIRC, our state regulator eventually clarified / issued a statement / etc to the effect of 'yeah, we mean that's how much you can possess outside your home, not have in your home from private cultivation.'



Now you're getting into the 'charitable exchange' aspects. Those are typically 'you can gift or share with individuals, but you can't exchange for money, goods, or services, etc.' But, again, the specifics vary from state to state.

You can check facebook to see if there's any local clubs, etc, in your area. When VA first legalized, there was a cannabis-friendly brew pub down the street that let some people organize a weekly get-together to share / exchange. Basically, one of those 'reserved for private function' things on slow weekdays. Not sure if they still do, and ultimately depends on how tolerant the local business, law enforcement, residents are, etc. May have been one of those 'we'll tolerate it at first, until someone complains' things.

Another option is if you have any grow-shops in your area. One near me does a community outreach program where they put growers in contact with disabled and veteran medical users to share / help grow / etc.

So VA effectively has no limits on possession from what each household legally grows. If there has been such a clarification here in neighboring MD, I'm not aware of it, and the relevant laws (and what you cited for MD) don't mention or even hint at anything like this.

I'm somewhat surprised that VA, much more conservative/red politically than MD including the governor, let the cannabis program do such a major (and rational) interpretatation of the law. I'd have presumed politics would have resulted in that 'liberal'-type policy never being publicly announced.

In MD, at the time the legalization law was passed, the politicians noted it was all a big and rushed compromise, with many things needing to be clarified or modified (when they get around to it, which they haven't yet).