Another marijuana lawsuit lit up last week as plaintiffs sued the state and the Arizona Department of Health Services for the cost of obtaining a medical marijuana and caregiver card.
First time applicants must pay a $150 fee for a medical marijuana card and caregivers pay $200 in addition to the cost of a doctor appointment to determine eligibility with the presence of a qualifying condition. The state does offer a $75 fee to applicants on SNAP.
Patients and caregivers must renew their card yearly for the same cost as the initial application fee and doctor visit.
Since patients under the age of 18 legally must have their legal guardian as their caregiver, this turns into a $500 bill to use medical marijuana each year, and isn’t covered by insurance.
While most medications can run a yearly bill much higher than this, the lack of assistance from insurance can make it burdensome for some people.
One of the plaintiffs, Yolanda Daniels, provides medical marijuana care for her 13-year-old granddaughter, who uses the drug to treat daily seizures, per an ABC15 report on the lawsuit.
The prescription has worked better than the 23 other drugs Daniels tried before, eliminating her granddaughter’s seizures.
As of January, Arizona had 128 qualifying patients who were minors, making up a small percent of the state’s patients, per the AZDHS medical marijuana annual report.
The $150 fee puts Arizona in the higher brackets of medical marijuana cards around the country. Oregon is the highest with a $200 fee and Nevada also charges $150, but also sticks patients with a $50 application fee, fingerprinting fee and card-making fee.
Closer to home, California charges a $66 fee for cards, but charge an additional fee based on the county in which the patient lives. Colorado charges $35, but waives fees for patients under the federal poverty line. In Maine, the cost is zero.
Arizona has about 80,000 medical marijuana patients or 13.1 per 1000 state residents, putting it above the national average of 8 patients per 1,000 state residents. This nets the state about $12 million in annual fees from patients, not including caregivers.
Arizona’s Medical Marijuana Fund currently sits at about $11.5 million, per the AZDHS report. That’s up $3 million from last year.
Except for Oregon and California, which bring in $15.5 million and $50 million, respectively, annually just in state fees, Arizona brings in substantially more revenue with its medical marijuana program than programs in other states.
Nevada and Colorado only net somewhere around $3 million.
Although each state has its own way of cashing in on marijuana, especially when weighing the budget boosts from recreational marijuana taxes in some states, it seems that Arizona does create more of a price barrier to obtaining medical marijuana than other states.
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2016.
This is exactly why governments and corporations must be kept out of medical marijuana manufacturing and marketing, otherwise you are just replacing the illegal drug dealer with a more dangerous and exploitive pusher with the power of taxation, the courts and police. I still think the best solution is to allow individuals to grow and consume their own marijuana and prohibit any commercial sale of individually-grown marijuana. Commercial sale of Marijuana for medical use only should be permitted and regulated to ensure quality control, but absolutely do not let the pharmaceutical companies have anything to do with it whatsoever.
Nick Meyers ; While he equates the cost burden and the revenue received from the Medical Marijuana program.
I see two entities in the whole of considerations cost and returned revenue.
The numbers come from the AZDHS/MMJ program on figures released in the annual report.
For every dollar spent on marijuana in AZ the cost to get it to the point of sell is $.079. Put most of the cost of hiring a doctor to oversee the operation 25 cents for doctor to oversee, security for the operation 21 cents, inventory control costs 21 cents, product labeling 12, patient records 8 cents.
So for every dollar you spend on medical marijuana. where do you see the doctor at the dispensary. Is this to be like the methadone clinics around town owned by doctors that charge insurance $125.00 for a daily dose? That cost figured on what it cost illegally so we can build a business to extrapolate by legal means the same costs? that kind of progressive thinking is that same thinking that has the cartels booming with the heroin trade. The legal pill mills DEA restrictions on pill mill doctors pushing them into the methadone and heroin markets. Now we have pill mill /dispensary owners now since the money is here they have found faith and are singing I found the light come on everyone let’s sing together another verse legalize to find the light.
another 21 cents out of every dollar goes to security. This is another bogus fee hire my brother in law to transport retired police he has a business a security company so will pay them $125.00 hr. then we rent from associates cameras windows megalocks safes etc. We dont buy we rent from associates keeps cost high we can always lower prices by culling this wasteful regulated practice.
Then there is inventory control another 21 cents out of every dollar. The cost for that is negotiable it should be close to inventory control of liquor which is .002 cent per dollar according to the Alcohol board.
Then product labeling is .012 cent per dollar excuse me ?? Some dont label, some dont test, some just apply the label on the average they have tested in the last month. there is no standardized testing or labeling but you are paying for it now as if it was there like other states.
let’s look at patient records keeping costs $.08 yea buy a inventory, patient record, sales, tax , labor & overhead program and server to handle all of this attribute the cost of this to each and every aspect of the line items listed above.
If prop 205 passed all the operation costs could be cut by 60% or better and after facilities are paid pure profit. The cost of the plant and the area to grow $.08 cents
Let’s look at this industry that we want to change the marijuana laws for are they really protecting us from the illegal cartels. I believe it follows the other illegal markets in history. Loan sharking was less than payday loans about half. Alcohol was getting so expensive to the mob that even Capone himself said I should have sold milk the margin was better. In that he had to pay for extreme amounts measure to insure high profits and returns for all that had their hands out. So the Volstead act keeping it illegal and the enforcement killing rivals and collections.
Does this look anything like the legal proposed “Department of Marijuana License and Controls.” With police officer rights and authority authority to conduct covert investigations and then report to the board and its administrative court that will have the right to seize and confiscate assets and property REALLY.
Everyone should be joyous that wolf has gone away for awhile. Get off your butts and get this done right for 2018. Stop all this back room dealings. If you bought a lottery dispensary and want to sell then it should go to a lottery system. The point of sell and production should be separate. Testing and distribution should be separate and I believe the state should be the sole distributor throughout the state. All product should go through a state authorized testing facility weight and control monitored. then sold to dispensaries. This would stop price fixing, large operations running out the small local people As well as making it unattractive for out of state and foreign investment.
As of fact since we are making this a state control only. Where it has total control I say no advertizing to commit a federal crime billboards print. No out of state investment only full time Arizona citizens can have access to any kind of corporate or administrative rights associated with any part of the AZ marijuana program. Make the laws reflect the restriction put on to the patient. After all it is them that are paying the price.
Did you notice Nick had so much about the story he didn’t mention who brought the suit. Just a little of the nuances of that are so persuasive from ADA but lack foundation.