VAGUE PROFIT MARGIN FOR MARIJUANA SPURS DISTRIBUTION COMPETITION

How much profit can a nonprofit make without exceeding what's
suitable for its legal status?

That, interestingly enough, has become one of the central questions
being raised about who will get to operate the state's medical
marijuana distribution centers.

Promoted to let seriously ill patients acquire a substance that could
calm them and offer substantial pain relief, voters in a 2009
referendum approved the use of palliative pot.

The state chose to implement the law by establishing distribution
centers in each of Maine's eight public health districts.

In lieu of the state operating them, officials decided to offer them
to private groups to run as nonprofit businesses offering "reasonable
compensation" to the nonprofit's members, directors or officers.

By not defining "reasonable," and by permitting patients with the
proper prescriptions to buy up to $1,400 worth of marijuana per
month, the state has drawn interest from numerous outside groups,
several of them located in California, where legalized marijuana has
made its greatest advances.

The requirement that the dispensaries be run by Maine residents has
led to an influx of immigrants vowing fealty to the Pine Tree State,
leaving some long-time residents upset that flatlanders are violating
their turf.

While some authorities say that the rules governing the dispensaries
mean no one will get rich running one, the influx of hopefuls is seen
by others as a sign there might be gold in them thar pot plants.

If that's the case, the state will have to pay very close attention
to be sure that patients, not profits, are the pot providers'
principal priority.