Columbus, Ohio – State regulators rolled out more details for Ohio’s new medical marijuana program Friday, prompting members of a panel advising the process to question the high fees proposed for marijuana business owners.
Under the proposed rules, medical marijuana product manufacturers, called processors, would pay $100,000 a year for one of 40 available licenses. Large-scale marijuana growers would pay $200,000 a year for a cultivator license. And retail dispensaries would pay $80,000 every two years to be licensed.
Members of the Ohio Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee on Friday questioned where the fees go and how much is necessary to operate the program, suggesting state officials release a budget plan for the fees.
"Fees have to cover whatever you want to cover but not anything more," said committee member Tony Coder, assistant director of Drug-Free Action Alliance. "If you raise the taxes, patients are just going to go back to a dealer who is not doing this scrupulously."
Application and license fees were intended to cover the cost to run and enforce the program out of the Ohio Department of Commerce and State Pharmacy Board.
Those agencies essentially borrowed $1.8 million from the state last year to hire staff to work on rules and regulations for the program. Repayment will come from marijuana business application and license fees.
Ohio State Board of Pharmacy officials said Friday they intend to lower the fees for dispensaries but haven’t yet settled on an amount.
Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart said the fees should remain high to ensure law enforcement costs associated with the new law are covered.
"Sometimes the state will do unfunded mandates and it falls back on local law enforcement to pick up the pieces or fix it," Lenhart said.
Chris Lindsey, senior legislative counsel for pro-marijuana group Marijuana Policy Project, said the proposed processor fees seemed high; many other states combine cultivator and processor licenses. For example, Illinois charges cultivators, which also make marijuana products, an initial $200,000 license fee.
"Processors tend to be one part of this production chain and unlike cultivators, they don’t have as much control over costs," Lindsey said in an interview.
Overall, Lindsey said, it seems Ohio regulators are not throwing up roadblocks to the program and have been receptive.
"You never get the perfect rules," Lindsey said. "But I’ve seen places where when these laws are passed, they end up in the hands of regulators and all of a sudden all these barriers seem to pop up and that doesn’t seem to be happening in Ohio."
Ohio’s medical marijuana law allows patients with 20 medical conditions to buy and use marijuana if recommended by a doctor. The law prohibits smoking and growing marijuana at home.
The law left most regulatory details, including how to license growers and register patients, to the Ohio Department of Commerce, Ohio State Board of Pharmacy and Ohio State Medical Board to decide before September.
The law requires the program to be fully operational by September 2018.
Patient and caregiver registry
Patients and caregivers would pay $50 and $25 a year, respectively, to register with the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy and receive an ID card to buy marijuana at retail dispensaries, under draft rules released Friday. Veterans and people enrolled in federal disability assistance programs would pay half that cost.
Those fees are a little less expensive than some medical marijuana states. For example, California charges $66 for an ID, and Illinois charges $100.
Patient and caregiver applications would have to be submitted electronically from doctors’ offices. Caregivers would be limited to two patients, and a parent or legal representative would have to serve as the caregiver for patients under age 18.
Processor licenses
Up to 40 licenses for medical marijuana product manufacturers, called processors, would be available, under proposed rules released Friday. Processors would have to pay a $10,000 application fee and a $90,000 license fee. Renewal would cost $100,000 a year.
Like cultivators and dispensaries, processors would be selected through a competitive process where applicants are judged on their security plan, business plan and other details. Only a few licenses would be allocated in a particular area. Officials have not yet decided how to divide the state up for licensing.
All marijuana products would be tested before packaging.
Changes to dispensary rules
After the first round of public comment, pharmacy board officials upped the number of dispensary licenses initially available from 40 to 60. The board could decide to add more to meet patient demand after September 2018.
A requirement to employ a pharmacist or other licensed prescriber as a "clinical director" was scrapped. The allowed hours of operation were revised from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. to 7 a.m.-9 p.m.
How to weigh in
Public comment will be collected on processor, patient and caregiver rules until 5 p.m. Feb. 10.
The revised dispensary rules will go to the Common Sense Initiative, which reviews the impact to small business, and then the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, a legislative panel that vets new regulations. Public comment will be accepted by both panels.
For more information about how to comment, visit the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program website.
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Full Article: Ohio Medical Marijuana Panel Questions High License Fees
Author: Jackie Borchardt
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