Medical marijuana caregivers in Maine are speaking out against proposed rules that would, among other things, require them to electronically track their products across the supply chain and adopt 24-hour video surveillance in some places of their business.

Office of Marijuana Policy regulators have said that the changes are meant to align the medical marijuana program with a series of new state laws that have been passed in the past few years.

The 80-page proposal would also align the state’s medical rules more closely with those of its fledgling recreational cannabis program, which launched last fall.

But in written public comments and during a daylong public hearing on Monday, a number of small caregivers from across the state opposed the changes.

They have argued that they already operate safely and responsibly under state rules that were last updated three years ago, and that the new ones would be too costly, burdensome and intrusive for them to follow without an expansion in the number of plants they can legally grow.

Maine first legalized medical marijuana more than 20 years ago. Now, there are about 3,000 registered caregivers who are legally allowed to grow cannabis and provide it to certified patients, sometimes from their own storefronts but in many cases out of their homes. [Read More @ The Bangor Daily News]