MEDICAL MARIJUANA FEES NEED A CHANCE TO WORK

The Legislature can make adjustments later if the new program is
shown to have flaws.

Maine voters approved such sweeping changes to the medical marijuana
law last year that it should be considered an entirely new program.

Given that, the fee structure created by the Legislature to implement
the new law should be given a chance to work before it gets adjusted.

At a hearing this week, some medical marijuana patients made the case
that the proposed annual charges -- $100 for a patient, and $300 for
a home grower -- are too high.

The patients said that many of them would be hard-pressed to pay that
much for the right to buy the drug that they need, even though
low-income MaineCare recipients would get a $25 annual discount.

Their testimony was compelling, but anyone who supports medical
marijuana distribution has an interest in seeing this program work.
And it will not succeed without strict government oversight to
protect against diversion.

Registration is necessary to establish who has a right to possess pot
in case of an encounter with law enforcement. Without a registry,
every person arrested for marijuana possession could claim to have an
ailment and try to find an after-the-fact prescription for it.

Maintaining a registry and keeping track of the dispensaries will
require an expenditure of state resources. With the state's fiscal
problems, it cannot afford to introduce this as a taxpayer-funded
entitlement. The bill that was approved by the voters anticipated
that the medical marijuana dispensary system would be self-supporting.

On their face, the fees do not seem to be too high: $100 a year
breaks down to less than $2 a week, or 27 cents a day. That does not
seem to be too much to be able to maintain reliable and legal access
to the drug.

If the fees prove to be an unreasonable burden for some consumers, or
if they raise more revenue than is needed to supervise the program,
the Legislature can make changes. As a new program, it should be
expected that modifications will be needed overtime when it is
introduced to the real world.

But the biggest threat to a successful medical marijuana program is
too little oversight, not too much. The state should take every step
necessary to make sure that legal pot gets into the right hands and
stays out of the wrong ones.