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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,100
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 Medical pot ID card's cost skyrockets [CA]
#6471692 - 01/17/07 10:43 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Medical pot ID card's cost skyrockets
January 17, 2007 - insidebayarea.com
 State-approved medical marijuana use is about to get much more expensive as the state hikes its voluntary identification-card fee almost eleven-fold.
The California Department of Health Services' fee for a Medical Marijuana Program card will go from $13 to $142 effective March 1.
State law requires "that the program is to be funded from the fees collected," DHS spokeswoman Michelle Mussuto said in an e-mail Wednesday. "An analysis of the cost to maintain minimum staff and operations determined the fee increase."
Counties also can charge administrative fees atop the state fee. In Alameda and San Francisco counties, for example, the cost is $50 -- although Medi-Cal beneficiaries can pay only half that -- so presumably the full cost in those counties will rise to at least $166 on March 1.
San Mateo County's current state and local fees total $45; Contra Costa County's total $75; and Santa Clara County's total $60. San Joaquin County does not yet take applications for the cards.
Retired state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose -- who created the ID-card program as part of his Senate Bill 420, signed into law just before he left the Legislature -- said Wednesday the sudden increase seems enormous.
"It seems like a pretty large amount beyond what we expected to be," he said, acknowledging the law requires the fees to bankroll the program but urging state officials to make "a public display of the math so they can be accountable."
Mussuto said only 8,454 cards have been issued in the 24 counties that have implemented the program, in which patient and primary caregiver participation is voluntary.
The dizzying fee increase "certainly will not encourage people" to rush out to get the cards, said Americans for Safe Access spokesman William Dolphin. "It's an additional barrier... and a substantially higher cost than would seem to be necessary for running the program."
Dolphin said ASA believes the state should do all it can to encourage patients and providers to get the ID cards, as they help police avoid wasting time and taxpayers' money on unfounded investigations.
SB 420 didn't include a deadline for launching the program and 34 counties haven't yet done so; San Diego, San Bernardino and Merced counties even sued to avoid it, but a Superior Court judge ruled against them in December. San Diego and San Bernardino will appeal the ruling.
Vasconcellos said Wednesday he'd hoped all counties would've adopted the ID card program by now, and that those county officials using taxpayer dollars to fight duly passed laws "have no respect for the law" and "should be impeached."
SB 420 was meant to bring some order to the chaos that followed the passage of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which legalized medical use of marijuana but provided very little framework for distinguishing medical use from recreational use. SB 420 aimed to help law enforcement and qualified patients by creating a form of patient and primary-caregiver identification that would be official and uniform throughout the state.
But federal law still bans possession, use and cultivation of marijuana, and federal prosecutions have ensued against people and entities arguably protected by state law. The state ID cards afford no protection against federal prosecution.
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 TurricaN
Grasshopper
Registered: 03/17/05
Posts: 776
Loc: Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Last seen: 1 day, 1 hour
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Re: Medical pot ID card's cost skyrockets [CA] [Re: veggie]
#6471963 - 01/18/07 12:05 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Fuck that. You'd have to be retarded to pay 142 bucks for a fucking card. I'll just pay for the pot thanks.
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Ojom
member
 
Registered: 10/27/99
Posts: 510
Last seen: 21 hours, 46 minutes
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Re: Medical pot ID card's cost skyrockets [CA] [Re: TurricaN]
#6472446 - 01/18/07 04:14 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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A onetime cost of $142 to $200 isn't exactly cheap, but its really not that much in the grand scheme of medical costs these days.
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funkyjunky
Sigh Low Sippin'
Registered: 12/08/03
Posts: 270
Loc: brick city
Last seen: 18 days, 7 minutes
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 Re: Medical pot ID card's cost skyrockets [CA] [Re: TurricaN]
#6472557 - 01/18/07 07:01 AM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
TurricaN said:
Fuck that. You'd have to be retarded to pay 142 bucks for a fucking card. I'll just pay for the pot thanks.
Considering the absurd amount of money you'd spend fighting a felony drug charge in the US, $142 is very reasonable. I doubt the $142 fee is producing any profit for the people involved. If cannabis was legal, I'd give it away for free  .
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Long Live the Shroomery
Peace
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,100
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Re: Medical pot ID card's cost skyrockets [CA] [Re: veggie]
#6480651 - 01/20/07 06:53 PM (1 year, 8 months ago) |
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Medical cannabis advocates decry California fee increase
January 20, 2007 - fogcityjournal.com
A steep rate hike in state fees to obtain a medical marijuana identification card has advocates worried about hassled patients and wasted police resources.
The state fee is currently $13, but it will rise to $142 on March 1.
Patients aren't currently required to have the identification cards in order to purchase medical marijuana. However, the cards are a tool for police to quickly determine that a patient is using marijuana legally, and offer the user protection against being mistakenly arrested by local or state law enforcement.
The federal government does not recognize Proposition 215, California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which legalized medical marijuana, and the identification cards do not protect against federal prosecution. The identification card program, also known as Senate Bill 420, was passed in 2004 in the hopes of helping law enforcement and protecting patients.
The rate hike "is obviously a significant barrier for patients being able to receive the full protection of the law,'' William Dolphin, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, said today.
The 11-fold increase is a matter of funding and the way the law is set up, according to Michelle Mussuto, state Department of Health spokeswoman.
"In order for the program to exist, it has to be funded by fees, according to the law. The fees from the cards sustain the program,'' she said.
The state requires counties to offer the identification card program to medical marijuana users, but there is no deadline for when they must comply. To date, 24 of California's 58 counties have offered the program -- fewer than the state anticipated. That means less money in fees for the state to run the program, Mussuto said.
"In order to sustain the program -- make sure the database is kept up to date and we have staff -- we have to use the money from those fees,'' she said.
But Dolphin said the state is looking at the funding situation the wrong way. The cards discourage wrongful arrests and seizures of property, actually saving the state money, he said.
"Any time you put someone through the judicial system, you're talking about an enormous cost to the taxpayers,'' he said. "While they say they're trying to cover their costs, they would save money by making the cards more readily available.''
Kevin Reed, president and founder of The Green Cross, a San Francisco medical marijuana dispensary, wrote a letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Thursday urging them to take action against the state increase.
The city's medical marijuana dispensary ordinance, passed before the state rate increase, will require marijuana dispensaries to check the state IDs of their patients, Reed said. The cost of the state ID card, along with county fees, doctors' visits and additional ID cards for caregivers, would be too heavy a burden to bear for many bedridden patients, he said.
Reed suggested San Francisco go back to issuing inexpensive medical marijuana cards at the county level "at least until the state card situation has worked out the kinks and all counties are online to share the financial burden of the program.''
San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who authored the city ordinance, was not available for comment today.
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