FILE PHOTO: Attorney Erin Gorman Kirk, of Norwalk, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, became the nation’s first Cannabis Ombudsperson, officially starting in her new role in Connecticut. Credit: Contributed photo
It’s been six months since Erin Gorman Kirk began her role as the first Cannabis Ombudsperson in the nation here in Connecticut.
Her task, to assist the state’s medical marijuana patients, make sure their voices are heard, and ensure that the state’s medical marijuana program continues.
Gorman Kirk says her work has started well, but there’s still a lot left to do.
“The Office of the Healthcare Advocate that hired me. They’ve been super supportive and have given me all the inner workings of a bureaucracy, which I have not dealt with before,” she said. “So that’s been really helpful. And the Department of Consumer Protection has also been very helpful as they handle all the cannabis and I am just the patient ombudsman, but we are sharing data and we’re trying to figure out ways that I can help take things off their plate.”
Gorman Kirk’s role doesn’t come with any statutory powers, but in working with Consumer Protection that oversees the medical and adult-use marijuana markets, she is a major component in bridging the gap between the state and medical marijuana users as well as the various growers, producers, and micro-cultivators that continue to open up.
Reciprocity Between States
One of her big wishes is to convince the legislature to give reciprocity for medical marijuana cardholders from other states who are visiting Connecticut.
“We have a huge issue with our patients going to other states for the medication that they are unfortunately kind of unable to get,” Gorman Kirk said. “Now, some is available, but we are having shortfalls in some of the patient categories. So, they’re going to other states and I’m hoping we could at least capture some people that are here.”
Since the introduction of adult-use cannabis in Connecticut in January 2023, the number of medical marijuana patients in the state has dropped from 60,000 to around 40,000. She says that comes down to economics.
“Some of the manufacturers, and I understand this economically, don’t want to make the high percentage products because there’s so few patients to sell them to,” she said, and businesses are telling her if the state allows them to sell their products to everyone and not just one or the other under the current system, they’ll produce more of what people want.
Big Drop In Medical Cannabis Sales
The introduction of the adult use market certainly has affected medical sales in the state.
From January 2023 through October 2024, according to sales figures from the Consumer Protection website, medical marijuana sales dropped month to month by over $1 million, while adult-use sales have steadily climbed. And while the state has dropped its fee for a patient to have a medical marijuana license, people’s practitioners, who have to sign them on to the program, are charging between $99 and $200.
“People are very upset. The problem is they’re saying they’re not going to pay whatever it costs,” Gorman Kirk said, adding, “I get a lot of emails saying the same thing. The quality’s down, the availability is down, the prices are high. Now last month the prices actually went down. I think we’re at $11 a gram. But the issue that these people, all of whom are patients past or present, are stating, is they can’t consistently get the medication they got before adult use came online.”
Which is why, she says, people are going to nearby Rhode Island and Massachusetts and buying a wider range and variety of cannabis at cheaper prices.
“One of our producers, Mr. Ben Zaks, who owns Fine Fetal, has repeatedly talked to the press about his store in Massachusetts getting so many patients from Connecticut because he has a wider variety of products for patients, and there are things in Massachusetts he can make that he cannot make here.”
A Look Ahead
Gorman Kirk also seemed optimistic about the situation and says she expects 2025 to be a turning point.
“The Legislature has handled quite a bit of the rulemaking. But according to the RERACA law, [Responsible and Equitable Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis] 2025 will essentially be the last year the legislature will really craft rules and regulations on this,” she said, adding that oversight of the rules and regulations will become Consumer Protection’s responsibility.
“So the department is gearing up for handling all this, and I’m ready to help them,” she said. “And I do think that, again, in 2025, we will have more micro and cultivators online. We’ll get more seeds in the ground, and we’ll get more products.”
Gorman Kirk also says the criticisms about the quality of cannabis in the state – issues of mold and yeast and remediation – are being addressed.
“We don’t necessarily have a practice in the state of Connecticut of revealing when we have a product recall,” she said. “Like it’s not in the press. You can find out. I have seen companies really step up to the plate. There was an entity that had a bad product. They simply destroyed it. They could have radiated it. They could have done other things, but they didn’t. They destroyed it. And I thought that was excellent. And I do think that people are really starting to vocalize.”
And Gorman Kirk, who uses medical marijuana herself, isn’t just saying that to keep the state’s producers and growers happy, either.
“I’ve been secret shopping,” she said. “It’s costing me a fortune out of pocket, but I and a few others are secret shopping, and I don’t tell anybody who I am. I just go in and talk. And I find people are really helpful. The gentleman and the ladies that are helping in these stores are really educated.”
She even challenged a grower who said there was no mold in the state.
“I went to his grow, and he had a clean grow. It was beautiful and he had really good practices and amazing looking flower,” she said. “So, he wanted to prove something to me, and he did, he really did … The bottom line is it’s your reputation and it’s going to be your competition. I really feel that some of the pressure that the patients have put on has really effectuated change.”
As Gorman Kirk says, it wasn’t a case of not listening, it was a case of what makes business sense and that was selling to the masses.
“This entire industry was built on the backs of patients. This started in the seventies, the sixties, started with AIDS patients and started with cancer patients,” she said. “So, you know, these are real issues for patients. And I just continue to say, you’ve built your industry on the backs of patients. Don’t leave them behind.”
Federal Conflicts And Hearings
She finishes our interview talking about how federal authorities are planning hearings in early 2025 on whether to reschedule cannabis from a Schedule 1 to Schedule 3, which wouldn’t necessarily make it more legal, but would reduce the sentences handed out for possession in states haven’t legalized adult-use or medical marijuana.
She says is one of 25 individuals who were asked by a federal administrative law judge to submit testimony in Washington about reclassifying cannabis.
However, she says it looks like they will all have a battle on their hands in convincing the judge to change the drug’s status – they’ve been told to bring a witness with them and a lawyer, meaning they will, in her words, be aggressively challenged on whatever they say and their position on the issue.
Gorman Kirk said she’s met all the deadlines to get her responses in, so now she must wait to see if and when any hearing dates materialize.
Will Trump Disrupt The Process?
On the matter of whether the new president-elect and his administration will change the situation, she said that’s a tough one.
“I actually had to work with the president-elect in the 80s, and as my boss always said, so many words are spoken, but nothing is ever said, and I don’t know what this man thinks. I don’t know if anybody does,” she said. “Matt Gaetz is clearly a proponent of all sorts of drug use, so I would be happy to offer my services to the administration because I think they need someone in there who knows what they’re doing. And I’m hearing, regardless of who the new president was going to be, the DOJ and the DEA wants to get this matter settled one way or another.”
H/T: ctnewsjunkie.com
