The post Lawmaker Asks Medical Marijuana Users To Pay For Anti-Drug Program appeared first on High Times.
Everyone knows the saying. More money, more problems. And in Arizona, the problem is figuring out what to do with the millions of dollars the state’s health department has garnered through its medical cannabis program. Like flies to honey, multiple Republican legislators are swarming around the roughly $13.7 million surplus in hopes of diverting it toward drug awareness campaigns. But what matters is where that money comes from. The folks responsible for stuffing state coffers are fighting back as one lawmaker asks medical marijuana users to pay for anti-drug program.
Arizona Generating Serious Cash Surplus From Medical Cannabis Fees
Demonstrating the financial benefits of legalized cannabis is one of the most powerful ways to win lawmakers and voters over to the pro-cannabis side of the fence. Taxes from medical and recreational marijuana sales have provided significant flows of cash for strained state budgets. Revenue from the legal cannabis industry has funded schools and education, drug treatment programs, law enforcement, and public health programming.
In Arizona, where recreational use is illegal, the state has collected a significant amount of revenue from taxes and fees. Arizona voters approved medical marijuana in 2010. But access to the state’s medical cannabis program came at a cost. Not only patients but caregivers, dispensaries and growers all had to pay into the pot.
The surplus the state is trying to figure out how to spend comes directly from those fees. Specifically, from the $150 annual fee patients registered with the program have to pay the Arizona Department of Health.
If that number seems a bit high, that’s because it is. Lawmakers set the fee at