Since the State of Michigan legalized recreational cannabis in 2018, I have worked for five commercial companies in the Mitten State. In three positions, I worked as a “production technician,” or in other words, a grower. In one independent contractor gig, I worked as a trimmer. And in my last role working in the corporate-level commercial weed industry, I worked as a northern Michigan-Wisconsin border dispensary budtender.
Before working with marijuana, I was employed as a communications analyst for the state. When I entered the weed industry, most managers wanted to push me toward compliance roles based on my government background. Growing is my personal favorite role when it comes to working with plants, but I still became observant of the many processes and procedures that take place behind marijuana company doors throughout my different jobs.
As someone who personally consumes cannabis for medical and religious reasons, I feel like my priorities differ from those of any company I’ve ever worked for. If you ask me what kind of marijuana “compliance” issues we should be paying attention to, for example, I would ask, “What is the government doing with all of the personal data that marijuana dispensaries are required to collect from patients and customers?”
What Is Marijuana Compliance?
Ever since modern marijuana legalization started in the United States, the government has required production and retail stakeholders to track product and customer/patient data. The implementation of tracking requirements can vary state-to-state, but most use what is known as the METRC system.
Serving 15 states, Washington D.C., and Guam, METRC tracks cannabis product and consumer information from the seed stage all the way to each individual product purchase.
For workers in the weed industry, this area of work is known as “compliance.”
What Information Does the Government Collect From Marijuana Customers?
To monitor the movement and sale of cannabis in states such as Michigan, METRC tracks data such as plant serial numbers, plant growth processes, customer names, customer birthdays and customer ID card numbers. Depending on the dispensary, data can even include individual ID photos and purchasing history.
What Does the Government Do With the Personal Data Marijuana Dispensaries Collect From Customers?
Although some dispensaries claim they’re not doing anything unethical with the data they obtain from customers/patients, how much do those dispensary representatives really know about where the data goes? How many people working in the state’s government Marijuana compliance agency even know?
According to METRC, there are few things the company does with data disclosure. In terms of the government or law enforcement using cannabis-related data, it’s definitely not out of the question. Per the company’s Global Privacy Policy, when it comes “to public authorities in response to lawful requests by public authorities to comply with national security or law enforcement requirements,” the company will “also use and disclose your Personal Information as necessary or appropriate, especially when we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest to do so.”
Based on the policy, “legal obligations” or “legitimate interests” might be:
- To comply with applicable law and regulations, including laws outside your country of residence;
- To cooperate with public and government authorities, including authorities outside your country of residence;
- To cooperate with law enforcement;
- For other legal reasons, such as to enforce our terms and conditions and to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; and
- In connection with a sale, merger or business transaction.
It would be enlightening to know what compliance with “applicable law and regulations” looks like, as well as “cooperation with law enforcement.”
What Has the Government Historically Done With Data Surrounding Regulated Industries?
In 1973, President Richard Nixon established the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) shortly after launching the very expensive and ongoing domestic “war” against “drugs” in the United States.
Based on highly skewed and inaccurate data, the DEA developed policies that strictly prohibit and criminalize the use of some drugs such as marijuana while overlooking other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol.
In the past, this sector of the government has warped scientific data to its own political advantage, often highlighting potential benefits of life-threatening pharmaceutical drugs, for example, while simultaneously demonizing grassroots marijuana products by labeling them equivalent to other Schedule 1 drugs such as heroin. Based on the DEA’s use of data, marijuana has been labeled as less safe than cocaine, meth and fentanyl (all of which are listed as Schedule 2 drugs).
In other words, the government has historically misused data to lie to the public and twist industries in whatever way will be most monetarily beneficial. Marijuana is safer than cigarettes. It is safer than alcohol. It is safer than many pharmaceutical over-the-counter pain relievers. To suggest it is less safe than cocaine, meth or fentanyl is laughable.
It is also worth thinking about the booming addiction recovery industry and the cozy relationship the United States government has with the private health industry.
Do tobacco and alcohol companies buy marijuana dispensary customer data? Do private health companies? What about the food industry? Are any food and drug companies playing with marijuana product and consumer data?
How about CoreCivic, the corporation that owns and manages a third of private prisons in the United States?
The government maintains thousands of contracts with private companies around the globe and has a shady history of data use.
Federal Government Constitutional Non-Compliance
Prohibiting the use of marijuana in any state violates my constitutional rights as a United States citizen. The sacramental use of cannabis is a form of Free Exercise of Religion for the Native church, protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act also explicitly protects the use of cannabis as a sacrament in Native American religious ceremonies, allowing for its legal use by Native Americans for religious purposes. (The same is true about tobacco, wine and coffee.)
Cannabis and HIPAA and ADA Non-Compliance
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that protects the privacy and security of health information that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1996.
Obviously, marijuana medication is not covered by health insurance, so then the question arose: Why aren’t holistic marijuana patients afforded the same privacy rights as pharmaceutical patients? And also, what about the pharmaceuticals prescribed to non-insured patients? Surely, those patients are still afforded HIPAA privacy rights, too, right?
Then, there is also the question of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it comes to employers invading the privacy of potential new hires. By law, an employer cannot prohibit an employee from using legal medication, per ADA protections; however, the employers haven’t been held to the ADA the same way with marijuana.
And why is that? If you aren’t allowed to test me for Tylenol, Vicodin or birth control, why do you get to dictate whether I’m using a life-saving nervous system regulator?
Moving Forward With Deregulation: How Do You Regulate a Sacred Plant?
As someone who uses cannabis for medical and religious reasons and who also has an understanding of the history of U.S. drug policy, I have valid concerns surrounding both the demonization and the commercialization of marijuana.
Surely, there are benefits to the commercialization of the over-criminalized plant, but when you account for 1) the ancient sacredness of that plant and 2) the fact that way too many people remain behind bars for marijuana-related offenses, you realize that the legalization has had little to do with the plant’s actual threat to public health, but rather, how well it economically fits in alongside more dangerous (and also regulated) alternative drug choices.
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