FEE FOR COLORADO MEDICAL-POT PATIENT REGISTRY DROPS TO $35

The state Board of Health on Wednesday slashed the fee that
medical-marijuana patients pay when applying for or renewing their licenses.

Patients will now pay $35 to be on Colorado's medical-marijuana
registry, down from $90. When the program started, after voter
approval in 2000, the annual fee was $140.

"We feel comfortable that will cover our expenses and be appropriate
given the volume of patients we are receiving," said Ron Hyman, the
Health Department official who oversees the registry.

The Board of Health also voted Wednesday to change how it defines
indigence for patients seeking a fee waiver, with the expectation
that more patients will qualify.

The changes come as the number of patients on the registry -
currently about 103,000 - is declining for the first time since at
least 2009. Figures released for September show a nearly
20,000-patient drop compared with August. The current numbers are 20
percent below the high mark for the registry, nearly 129,000 patients
in June, and down about 14 percent since January.

Medical-marijuana advocates at Wednesday's hearing blamed the cost of
applying to the registry as one cause of the decline and applauded
the Board of Health's changes. But they also cited a number of other
causes for the shrinkage of registered patients.

Barb Visher, who owns the Tender Healing Care dispensary in Denver,
said paperwork headaches and shifting rules have likely driven some
patients away.

"It's changed so often that it's frustrating for patients," she said.
"It's cumbersome, and it's costly."

Josh Kappel, from the marijuana-advocacy group Sensible Colorado,
said rulings that go against medical marijuana in areas of child
custody, employment and even gun ownership may have also persuaded
people to stay off the registry.

"A lot of patients are having to decide, 'Do I use medical marijuana
and potentially give up all these other rights I have?' " Kappel said.

James McVaney, a disability-rights advocate, said the number of new
patients applying to the registry has dwindled since state lawmakers
and administrators created stricter rules for medical-marijuana
businesses - including that transactions at dispensaries be
videotaped. He said the current drop is fueled by previously
registered patients not renewing their licenses.

Patients need a doctor's recommendation to be legal medical-marijuana
users in Colorado and do not need to apply to the registry. However,
the registry gives patients extra protection against prosecution, and
a registry card is required to shop at a dispensary. Patients without
a card can grow their own marijuana or obtain it from a small-scale caregiver.

Visher said she thinks the nonrenewing patients are doing just that -
or are buying from the black market.

"A drop in the registry does not mean there are fewer patients or
less need," she said.