A FEE TOO HIGH

Legislators are about to make it much more expensive to have a medical
marijuana card. Why?

OK, so with many people the marijuana card may be a subterfuge, but so
what? As long as people get the stuff legally, why should the state
object?

A budget bill making its way through the legislature includes a fee
increase from $100 a year to $200 for people holding the cards. It
also adds a $200 annual fee for registered growers.

According to advocates for the card holders, the new fees are expected
to generate $7 million in new income for the Oregon Health Authority,
which oversees the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.

You don't have to be a user of medical pot to appreciate that a 100
percent fee increase for patients, and the imposition of an entirely
new $200 fee on authorized growers for patients, is an attack on the
program and its participants. Many of them are poor. If they could
afford expensive medicines, they might not need the medical pot for
various pains.

If administering the program costs too much money, the state should
find ways to streamline the administration of it so it costs less.
(hh)