How to Start a Nonprofit Cannabis Primary Caregivers Group

The Great State of California protects Primary Caregivers and their Qualified Patients.

Primary Caregivers may receive compensation in full compliance with subdivision (c) of Section 11362.765 of the Health and Safety Code and are exempt from the licensure requirements of Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA).

If you are a Primary Caregiver or want to be one, our office can help you comply with California Law and ensure your success and service to your Qualified Patients.

Should you have any questions and would like a complimentary telephone consultation, please call our office toll free at 888-828-2483 between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm, Monday through Saturday.

Early in 2019, Health & Safety Code Section 11362.775 that authorized collectives and cooperatives was repealed.  Which means terminated and thus collectives and cooperatives formed under Health & Safety Code Section 11362.775 are no longer recognize under California law.

However, Health & Safety Code Section 11362.765 remains in full-force for qualified patients, designated primary caregivers and individuals who provides assistance to a qualified patient or a person with an identification card, or his or her designated primary caregiver, in administering medicinal cannabis to the qualified patient or person or acquiring the skills necessary to cultivate or administer cannabis for medical purposes to the qualified patient or person.

Who Can Be a Primary Caregiver?

Health & Safety Code Section 11362.7(e) provides,  "A primary caregiver shall be at least 18 years of age, unless the primary caregiver is the parent of a minor child who is a qualified patient or a person with an identification card or the primary caregiver is a person otherwise entitled to make medical decisions under state law pursuant to Section 6922, 7002, 7050, or 7120 of the Family Code."

What are the Protections?

Health & Safety Code Section 11362.765 provides:

"(a) Subject to the requirements of this article, the individuals specified in subdivision (b) shall not be subject, on that sole basis, to criminal liability under Section 11357 (possession of marijuana), § 11358 (cultivation of marijuana), § 11359 (possession of marijuana for sale), § 11360 (sale, transportation, importation, or furnishing of marijuana), § 11366 (maintaining place for purpose of unlawfully selling, furnishing, or using controlled substance), § 11366.5 (knowingly providing place for purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing, or distributing controlled substance), or § 11570 (place used for unlawful selling, furnishing, storing, or manufacturing of controlled substance as nuisance).

This section does not authorize the individual to smoke or otherwise consume cannabis unless otherwise authorized by this article, nor shall anything in this section authorize any individual or group to cultivate or distribute cannabis for profit."

(b) Subdivision (a) shall apply to all of the following:

(1) A qualified patient or a person with an identification card who transports or processes cannabis for his or her own personal medical use.

(2) A designated primary caregiver who transports, processes, administers, delivers, or gives away cannabis for medical purposes, in amounts not exceeding those established in subdivision (a) of Section 11362.77, only to the qualified patient of the primary caregiver, or to the person with an identification card who has designated the individual as a primary caregiver.

(3)  An individual who provides assistance to a qualified patient or a person with an identification card, or his or her designated primary caregiver, in administering medicinal cannabis to the qualified patient or person or acquiring the skills necessary to cultivate or administer cannabis for medical purposes to the qualified patient or person.

(c) A primary caregiver who receives compensation for actual expenses, including reasonable compensation incurred for services provided to an eligible qualified patient or person with an identification card to enable that person to use cannabis under this article, or for payment for out-of-pocket expenses incurred in providing those services, or both, shall not, on the sole basis of that fact, be subject to prosecution or punishment under Section 11359 or 11360.

(Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 27, Sec. 137. (SB 94) Effective June 27, 2017.)

What are the Limitations of a Primary Caregiver:

Business and Professions Code 26033(b) provides, "A primary caregiver who cultivates, possesses, stores, manufactures, transports, donates, or provides cannabis exclusively for the personal medical purposes of no more than five specified qualified patients for whom he or she is the primary caregiver within the meaning of Section 11362.7 of the Health and Safety Code, but who does not receive remuneration for these activities except for compensation in full compliance with subdivision (c) of Section 11362.765 of the Health and Safety Code, is exempt from the licensure requirements of this division."

Health and Safety Code Section 11362.7(2) provides,  "An individual who has been designated as a primary caregiver by more than one qualified patient or person with an identification card, if every qualified patient or person with an identification card who has designated that individual as a primary caregiver resides in the same city or county as the primary caregiver.

What are the Required Duties of a Primary Caregiver:

A primary caregiver is a person who is designated by a qualified patient and “has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety” of the patient. (§ 11362.5(e).)

California courts have emphasized the consistency element of the patient-caregiver relationship.

Although a “primary caregiver who consistently grows and supplies . . . medicinal marijuana for a section 11362.5 patient is serving a health need of the patient,” someone who merely maintains a source of marijuana does not automatically become the party “who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety” of that purchaser.

A person may serve as primary caregiver to “more than one” patient, provided that the patients and caregiver all reside in the same city or county. (§ 11362.7(d)(2).)

Primary caregivers also may receive certain compensation for their services. (§ 11362.765(c) [“A primary caregiver who receives compensation for actual expenses, including reasonable compensation incurred for services provided . . . to enable [a patient] to use marijuana under this article, or for payment for out-of-pocket expenses incurred in providing those services, or both, . . . shall not, on the sole basis of that fact, be subject to prosecution” for possessing or transporting marijuana].)

Possession and Cultivation Guidelines:

If a person is acting as primary caregiver to more than one patient under section 11362.7(d)(2), he or she may aggregate the possession and cultivation limits for each patient. For example, applying the MMP’s basic possession guidelines, if a caregiver is responsible for three patients, he or she may possess up to 24 oz. of marijuana (8 oz. per patient) and may grow 18 mature or 36 immature plants and must have supporting records readily available.

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Award 2020 Wolfgang Kovach, Esq., Medicinal & Adult Use Cannabis, Business, selected for the 2020 Edition of California Top Attorneys 2020©
Award 2020 Wolfgang Kovach, Esq., Medicinal & Adult Use Cannabis, Business, selected for the 2020 Edition of California Top Attorneys 2020©
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Award 2018 Wolfgang Kovach, Esq., Medicinal & Adult Use Cannabis, Business, selected for the 2019 Edition of Best 2018 Laguna Niguel©
Award 2018 Wolfgang Kovach, Esq., Medicinal & Adult Use Cannabis, Business, selected for the 2019 Edition of Best 2018 Laguna Niguel©