Delivery and drive through draft rules create praise, concern
New dispensary rules for public comment range from vape warnings at points of sale to banning clone sales to drive through and delivery guidance.
Kevin Ellison, CEO of CST Solutions in Springfield, said delivery and drive-throughs are great for patients, but the vagueness of the rules cause confusion.
“The idea of allowing drive-throughs is great for patients,” Ellison said. “Based on the qualifying conditions, there will be a significant percentage of customers that have mobility challenges, and having a drive-through will make it easier for those patients.
“From the facility side, I think it creates challenges in terms of having to have a person dedicated as well as a manger involved in the drive-through.”
“My biggest concern about the drive-throughs is the vagueness in the requirements,” Ellison said. “For example, the rule specifies ‘windows that do not open or remain closed and locked.’ The first type is similar to a bank teller and the second type is similar to a McDonald’s window. The greatest concern being that any type of window can be opened is a target for theft because any hinge or gap is a weakness that can be exploited by criminals trying to break-in.
“My second concern about the regs is it doesn’t really define specifics about identifying the person in the vehicle,” Ellison said. “Anyone that has worked with bank or pharmacy drive-throughs can tell you that one of the greatest challenges is identifying the person. For example, if the patient is not the driver and the vehicle has a low roof, sits extra high, or is dark inside it can be very difficult to see people in any seat other than the driver seat. This makes fraud much easier because if the cardholder is not in the driver seat it becomes easier to fraudulently pretend to be the cardholder while putting a dispensary in the difficult position of not wanting to make a patient get out of the vehicle.
“My third concern is how DHSS plans to regulate that drive-throughs can only service people in vehicles. In the draft regulations they state that ‘drive-through lanes shall not constitute an additional access point to the facility,’ and legally I think a dispensary owner could argue that a walk-up window is no different than a drive-through lane in terms of risk if it isn’t an access point. This opens up dispensaries to not having lobbies at all and just having drive-through lanes and walk-up windows which I don’t think is the intention of DHSS and I think a lot of municipalities will have issues with these layouts.”
The draft rule states, related to drive-throughs, that:
- Drive-through lanes shall not constitute an additional access point to the facility;
- A staff person serving a patient or caregiver at a drive-through window is not available to serve a patient or caregiver in the limited access area as long as the staff person is serving the drive-through patient or caregiver;
- 4. Drive-through lanes must:
- (I) Utilize drive-through drawers for dispensing medical marijuana;
- (II) Utilize drive-through windows that either do not open or remain closed and locked and that allow clear visibility for verification of patient identity;
- (III) Be covered at all times by video camera monitoring and recording as required in 19 CSR 30-95.040; and
- (IV) Remain open only when a facility manager is present in the drive-through window area to supervise transactions made at the window.
“The most obvious concern is this does allow a scenario where you have traveling vehicles that drive around specific areas and sell cannabis from the vehicle,” Ellison said. “The driver could call the dispensary, place the order over the phone to someone in the dispensary and then dispense the cannabis from the vehicle, and collect payment. A few additional rules could clarify what DHSS means to actually allow regarding the collection of payment at the time of delivery versus when the order must be placed such as requiring all cannabis in the delivery vehicle be assigned to an existing customer order.”
Ellison said his other concern as a transportation license holder is “this regulation change has a significant effect on the security risks of delivery vehicles as well as the insurance. Delivery vehicles that are carrying only cannabis have lower insurance rates than vehicles carrying both cash and Cannabis at the same time. Additionally, as banking rules change it introduces credit card PCI data regulations which adds a lot of complexity to the processes drivers have to go through and training they must have.”
For delivery, the draft rules say:
- “In the case of a delivery order, receive payment before the medical marijuana leaves the dispensary, subject to refund if the delivery cannot be completed or, if not receiving prepayment, deliver to no more than two individuals at one address on the same day…”
Ellison said the phrase “… or, if not receiving prepayment, deliver to no more than two individuals at one address on the same day; …” changes the regulation around delivery payment so that accepting payment at the time of delivery is now allowed as long as the delivery isn’t to more than two individuals at one address. “This makes it easier on patients as they don’t have to come up with significant funding ahead of time, but this does create a few potential issues without more clarification and definition.”
“From the security side of things, the delivery process becomes much riskier,” Ellison said. “Dominoes Pizza, for example, has a limit on how much cash drivers can carry because of the high robbery rate of pizza delivery drivers. Home delivery drivers in any industry are frequently targeted for crime, in 2015, Vice.com listed pizza delivery as one of the most dangerous jobs in America and they carry a far less valuable product and have a limit of carrying $100 in cash at a time.
“If cannabis delivery drivers are allowed to collect money when delivering product, then there need to be security regulations with the change that require a second armed driver in the delivery car at all times for protection.”
Ellison said the new draft rules added confusion but applauded the direction.
“These rules do make things easier for patients and I think we all applaud DHSS for working to make Missouri’s medical cannabis industry the best cannabis market in the US. I think sometimes the implications for the security and functionality of the facilities is not always considered in the wording of the change. A little clarity for the facilities can go a long way towards helping facilities function as DHSS is expecting.”
DHSS is accepting public comment through Monday, June 8 via its website ahead of sending the drafted rules to the Secretary of State’s Office for publishing in the Missouri Register. Once published, SOS has a 30-day public comment window before printing into regulation.
Read the full set of draft rules below.
