Posted on 01/05/2005 1:13:33 AM PST by freepatriot32
SUMMARY: Registration fee rankles some medical marijuana proponents, but hardly is unreasonable.
Adam Smith famously said there's no free lunch, meaning everything costs something. Were he in Montana today, Smith might add that there's no free pot, either.
A story first published in the Dec. 22 Missoulian and since found careening around the world through the Internet quoted a backer of Montana's new medical marijuana law complaining about the registration fee for people signing up to make use of marijuana to alleviate pain and other symptoms from serious illness.
That fee is $200.
"Extortion," declares one participant in the marijuana.com discussion group. "Heartless monsters," writes another. "Why is it every other government Š program gets a budget, but this doesn't?" questions another.
Montana on Nov. 2 became the 10th state to legalize the use of marijuana by patients of certain diseases following passage of Initiative 148. The new law allows certain patients with a doctor's certification of their condition and potential to benefit from the treatment to use marijuana, which remains an illegal drug to the rest of the population. The new law allows qualifying patients and their caregivers to grow and possess limited amounts of marijuana, but it also requires them to register with the state.
The initiative didn't include any funding for the program. But, of course, it costs something to administer. Hence the registration fee. Is $200 too much? That's hard to say, since it's all so new. Maybe it's too high. Maybe it's too low. It's likely going to depend on how many people register and how much trouble it turns out to be to ensure its integrity. There tends to be some economy of scale to these things - that is, the more people who pay the fee, the lower the per-person fee. Checking with a couple of other states that have medical marijuana programs up and running, we see Oregon's registration fee is $150 and Colorado's is $110. If the folks in Helena administering the program were bent on extortion, they probably wouldn't have started with fees only marginally higher than other states. In any event, it should be easy enough to monitor Montana's program to make certain the fees charged are sufficient to cover the costs of running the registry but don't generate a surplus.
As for the registrants, $200 isn't a trivial sum. Then again, for anyone suffering from (as the law specifies) "a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition that produces Š wasting syndrome; severe or chronic pain; severe nausea; seizures; or severe or persistent muscle spasms," or suffering from cancer, glaucoma or AIDS, and looking to marijuana to provide relief that no other medicine can, well, the $200 probably will seem money well spent.
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Medicaid paying for your pot habit? How... Liberal!!!
I have a sore toe. I think it's time to see my doc and insist that only smoking pot relieves the pain. My insurance should cover the cost, after all, it's "medicine".
Did you read the article?
'Cause I'm guessing...no.
Government in a FREE Republic waging a War on SOME Drug's and SOME Drug User's, supporting the Thug Habit? How... LIBERAL!!!
I have a sore toe.
Poor noob!
I think it's time to see my doc and insist that only smoking pot relieves the pain.
Go for it.
My insurance should cover the cost, after all, it's "medicine".
Indeed, whatever works for ya! At least for the time being, in Montana, it's a choice between you and your Doctor, for treatment. Blackbird.
Hey ... Why not?
In Kalifornia they charge gun owners to pay for the registration of their own firearms so that the public at large can be protected. We have to pay to prove that we are not criminals every time we purchase a firearm.
Why shouldn't cancer sufferers pay for proving that they are not criminals. Why shouldn't we all pay to prove that we are not criminals?
Pain killers are frequently abused. I think that everyone who ever uses pain-killers should have to register first and prove that they are not criminals.
We can't possibly afford to build all the prisons we would need if people are free to commit crimes. The only solution is to prevent crime by registering pre-criminals at their own expense.
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