2015 Delaware Code
Title 16 - Health and Safety
CHAPTER 49A. THE DELAWARE MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACT
§ 4920A Confidentiality.

(a) The following information received and records kept by the Department for purposes of administering this chapter are confidential and exempt from the Delaware Freedom of Information Act [Chapter 100 of Title 29], and not subject to disclosure to any individual or public or private entity, except as necessary for authorized employees of the State of Delaware to perform official duties pursuant to this chapter:

(1) Applications and renewals, their contents, and supporting information submitted by qualifying patients and designated caregivers, including information regarding their designated caregivers and physicians.

(2) Applications and renewals, their contents, and supporting information submitted by or on behalf of compassion centers and safety compliance facilities in compliance with this chapter, including their physical addressees.

(3) The individual names and other information identifying persons to whom the Department has issued registry identification cards.

(4) Any dispensing information required to be kept under § 4919A of this title or Department regulation shall identify cardholders and registered compassion centers by their registry identification numbers and not contain names or other personally identifying information.

(5) Any Department hard drives or other data-recording media that are no longer in use and that contain cardholder information must be destroyed. The Department shall retain a signed statement from a Department employee confirming the destruction.

(b) Nothing in this section precludes the following:

(1) Department employees shall notify law-enforcement about falsified or fraudulent information submitted to the Department if the employee who suspects that falsified or fraudulent information has been submitted.

(2) The Department shall notify state or local law-enforcement about apparent criminal violations of this chapter.

(3) Compassion center agents shall notify the Department of a suspected violation or attempted violation of this chapter or the regulations issued pursuant to it.

(4) The Department shall verify registry identification cards pursuant to 4921A of this title.

(5) The submission of the § 4922A of this title report to the legislature.

Information obtained pursuant to this chapter is subject to the same protections and penalties afforded other health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), 45 CFR Part 160, 162 and 164.

78 Del. Laws, c. 23, § 1.;

§ 4921A Registry identification and registration certificate verification.

(a) The Department shall maintain a confidential list of the persons to whom the Department has issued registry identification cards and their addresses, phone numbers, and registry identification numbers.

(b) The Department shall maintain a verification system which shall be established by January 1, 2013. The verification system must allow law-enforcement personnel, compassion center agents, and safety compliance facility agents to enter a registry identification number to determine whether or not the number corresponds with a current, valid registry identification card. The system shall only disclose whether the identification card is valid; whether the cardholder is a registered qualifying patient or a registered designated caregiver; the registry identification number of the registered compassion center designated to serve the registered qualifying patient; and, if the cardholder is a registered designated caregiver, the registry identification number of the registered qualified patient who is assisted by the cardholder.

(c) The Department shall, with a cardholder's permission, confirm his or her status as a registered qualifying patient or registered designated caregiver to a landlord, employer, school, medical professional, or court.

(d) The Department shall disclose the names of any person whose registry identification card was revoked to any court where the person is seeking to assert the protections of 4913A of this title.

78 Del. Laws, c. 23, § 1; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1.;

§ 4922A Oversight Committee; annual report by Department.

(a) The Medical Marijuana Act Oversight Committee is established to evaluate and make recommendations regarding the implementation of this chapter.

(1) The Oversight Committee shall consist of 9 members who possess the qualifications and are appointed as follows:

a. One member, appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

b. One member, appointed by the Speaker of the House.

c. The Secretary of the Department, or a designee appointed by the Secretary.

d. Two medical professionals, each licensed in Delaware, with experience in medical marijuana issues, appointed by the Governor.

e. One member with experience in policy development or implementation in the field of medical marijuana, appointed by the Governor.

f. Three members who each shall be a cardholder, as defined in § 4902A of this title, appointed by the Governor.

(2) The members of the Oversight Committee shall serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority.

(3) A quorum shall consist of 51% of the membership of the Oversight Committee.

(4) The Oversight Committee shall select a Chair and Vice Chair from among its members.

(5) Staff support for the Oversight Committee shall be provided by the Department.

(6) The Oversight Committee shall meet at least 2 times per year for the purpose of evaluating and making recommendations to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Department regarding the following:

a. The ability of qualifying patients in all areas of the State to obtain timely access to high-quality medical marijuana.

b. The effectiveness of the registered compassion centers, individually and together, in serving the needs of qualifying patients, including the provision of educational and support services, the reasonableness of their fees, whether they are generating any complaints or security problems, and the sufficiency of the number operating to serve the registered qualifying patients of Delaware.

c. The effectiveness of the registered safety compliance facility or facilities, including whether a sufficient number are operating.

d. The sufficiency of the regulatory and security safeguards contained in this chapter and adopted by the Department to ensure that access to and use of marijuana cultivated is provided only to cardholders authorized for such purposes.

e. Any recommended additions or revisions to the Department regulations or this chapter, including relating to security, safe handling, labeling, and nomenclature.

f. Any research studies regarding health effects of medical marijuana for patients.

(b) The Department shall submit to the Governor and the General Assembly an annual report that does not disclose any identifying information about cardholders, registered compassion centers, or physicians, but does contain, at a minimum, all of the following information:

(1) The number of applications and renewals filed for registry identification cards.

(2) The number of qualifying patients and designated caregivers approved in each county.

(3) The nature of the debilitating medical conditions of the qualifying patients.

(4) The number of registry identification cards revoked for misconduct.

(5) The number of physicians providing written certifications for qualifying patients.

(6) The number of registered compassion centers.

(7) Specific accounting of fees and costs.

78 Del. Laws, c. 23, § 1; 80 Del. Laws, c. 11, § 1.;

§ 4923A Department to issue regulations.

Not later than July 1, 2012, the Department shall promulgate regulations:

(1) Governing the manner in which the Department shall consider petitions from the public to add debilitating medical conditions or treatments to the list of debilitating medical conditions set forth in § 4902A(3) of this title, including public notice of and an opportunity to comment in public hearings on the petitions;

(2) Establishing the form and content of registration and renewal applications submitted under this chapter;

(3) Governing the manner in which it shall consider applications for and renewals of registry identification cards; and

(4) Governing the following matters related to registered compassion centers and security compliance facilities, with the goal of protecting against diversion and theft, without imposing an undue burden on the registered compassion centers or compromising the confidentiality of cardholders:

a. Minimum oversight requirements for registered compassion centers;

b. Minimum recordkeeping requirements for registered compassion centers;

c. Minimum security requirements for registered compassion centers, which shall include that each registered compassion center location must be protected by a fully operational security alarm system;

d. The competitive scoring process addressed in §§ 4914A and 4915A of this title;

e. Procedures for suspending or terminating the registration certificates or registry identification cards of cardholders, registered compassion centers, and registered safety compliance facilities that commit multiple or serious violations of the provisions of this chapter or the regulations promulgated pursuant to this section; and

f. The design and security features of medical marijuana containers to be provided by the compassion centers.

(5) Requiring application and renewal fees for registry identification cards, and registered compassion center registration certificates, according to the following:

a. The total fees collected must generate revenues sufficient to offset all expenses of implementing and administering this chapter, except that fee revenue may be offset or supplemented by private donations;

b. The total amount of revenue from application, renewal, and registration fees for compassion centers and security compliance facilities shall be sufficient to implement and administer the compassion center and safety compliance facility provisions of this chapter;

c. The Department may establish a sliding scale of patient application and renewal fees based upon a qualifying patient's household income; and

d. The Department may accept donations from private sources to reduce application and renewal fees.

e. The total amount of revenue from application, renewal, and registration fees for compassion centers, security compliance facilities, and registry identification cards will be deposited to a special account within the Department for the operation of the program created by this chapter and shall be used as necessary to support program operations and growth.

78 Del. Laws, c. 23, § 1.;

§ 4924A Enforcement of this chapter.

If the Department fails to adopt regulations to implement this chapter within the times provided for in this chapter, any citizen may commence an action in Superior Court to compel the Department to perform the actions mandated pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.

78 Del. Laws, c. 23, § 1.;

§ 4925A Severability.

Any section of this chapter being held invalid as to any person or circumstance shall not affect the application of any other section of this chapter that can be given full effect without the invalid section or application.

78 Del. Laws, c. 23, § 1.;

§ 4926A Date of effect.

This chapter shall take effect on the first day of the fiscal year following its enactment into law. If, however, the chapter, is not enacted before July 1, 2011, then the effective date shall be 90 days from enactment. [The chapter became effective on July 1, 2011.]

78 Del. Laws, c. 23, § 1.;

§ 4927A Background checks.

(a) A person required to obtain a background check under this chapter shall submit fingerprints and other necessary information to the State Bureau of Identification in order to obtain all of the following:

(1) A report of the person's entire criminal history record from the State Bureau of Identification or a statement that the State Bureau of Identification Central Repository contains no such information relating to that person.

(2) A report of the person's entire federal criminal history record from the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to Federal Bureau of Investigation appropriation of Title II of Public Law 92-544 (28 U.S.C. § 534) or a statement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation's records contain no such information relating to that person.

(b) The State Bureau of Identification shall be the intermediary for the purpose of subsection (a) of this section and shall forward all information required by subsection (a) of this section to the Department.

(c) The Department shall use the background check required by this section only to determine if the person required to obtain a background check meets the requirements of this chapter.

(d) A person required to obtain a background check under this chapter is responsible for any costs associated with obtaining the background check.

80 Del. Laws, c. 11, § 5.;

§ 4928A Research.

(a) Research for the development of well-characterized and more-defined medical marijuana products for treatment of target indications, including demonstrations of safety and efficacy for treatment of medical conditions that often fail to respond to conventional treatment, may be conducted in Delaware.

(b) Research performed under the authority of this chapter shall be conducted as follows:

(1) In a facility which meets FDA-accepted security and operational standards.

(2) Using practices and standards that ensure uniformity, consistency, reliability, reproducibility, quality, and integrity of data, including good laboratory standards (GLP) when required.

(3) On plants grown from well-characterized and well-defined seed stock.

80 Del. Laws, c. 115, § 2.;