just pulled this off of GUIDELINES FOR THE SECURITY AND NON-DIVERSION
OF MARIJUANA GROWN FOR MEDICAL USE
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. (People ex rel. Lungren
v. Peron (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 1383, 1390, 1400.) 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].)