Broome County expected $850,000 in excise tax revenue in 2016 from the passage of the state’s medical marijuana act. Instead, just $320 has so far come through.
That’s according to expected and actual excise tax revenues listed in the County Executive’s 2017 proposed budget, and reflects the amount in revenue received as of the end of the fiscal year’s second quarter, which ended June 30.
The 2017 budget lists $0 in expected excise tax revenues from the sale of medical marijuana.
Deputy County Executive John Bernardo said the excise tax revenue projections were based on information from confidential conversations between the County Department of Health and then-Broome County Director of Health Claudia Edwards. The department did not give the county anything in writing, and nothing in writing came out of those conversations.
"From the beginning, the law allowing medical marijuana was difficult to navigate, and many people had a tough time getting prescriptions because many doctors do not endorse the use of medical marijuana," Bernardo said.
Director of the Broome County Office of Management and Budget Marie Kalka said calculations were based on the number of people in Broome County and surrounding counties who might have been eligible for medical marijuana use because of their diagnoses, minus the number of those who might qualify but are on Medicaid.
Because the sale, purchase or use of marijuana in any form remains illegal under federal law, consumers in all states where medical marijuana is legal can only buy the drug with cash. That would hamper a Medicaid recipient’s ability to afford the drug.
"I learned my lesson," Kalka said of the 2017 budget. "I didn’t budget anything."
New York State Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-123rd District, the primary co-sponsor of the Compassionate Care Act, said she was skeptical about the success of the law from the beginning.
"The Governor made it very clear that this was going to be the most restrictive medical marijuana program in the country," she said. "The county had an optimistic projection that did not match the restrictive nature of the program."
Of the $850,000 expected in revenue, $100,000 was allocated to the Department of Social Services for opioid programs. The remaining $750,000 was allocated to the county’s general fund, despite an attempt by then-county legislator Jason Garnar to set the entire $850,000 aside for opioid programs.
The county has only one medical marijuana dispensary, located in Johnson City and operated by Vireo Health, one of the five companies licensed by the state to operate dispensaries.
According to a New York State Department of Health report, Broome County had only 41 patients certified to use medical marijuana and three doctors registered to recommend it, as of June 15, 2016.
Those numbers are likely due in some part to the fact that the state has not created a database that would allow patients seeking medical marijuana treatment to find registered physicians in their area, Lupardo said.
"You had to go doctor by doctor, and practically call every doctor in the Yellow Pages to find someone," Lupardo said.
On top of that, physicians have to take a four-hour online course and pay $250 in order to become registered with the state, said Ari Hoffnung, CEO of Vireo Health.
Given the fact that medical schools don’t include medical marijuana as part of their curriculum, the course is a good idea, Hoffnung said. But less than 1 percent of the state’s physicians have enrolled in the program.
"There is institutional resistance, to a large extent, to the program, which presents a series of challenges," he said.
New York only allows the sale of medical marijuana in the form of capsules or oils, and forbids sale of the drug in the less expensive edible and smokeable forms. It also doesn’t list chronic pain as one of the symptoms that qualifies a patient to register for the drug.
But the state Department of Health report issued earlier this year recommended reexamining the restrictions on edible and smokeable forms of the drug, as well as those on the exclusion of chronic pain as a qualifying symptom.
The report also stated that the department plans to give practitioners the ability to opt-in to being listed on a physician database.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Expecting $850,000 In Medical Marijuana Revenue, County Receives $320
Author: Hannah Schwarz
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Photo Credit: Shannon Hazlitt
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