Title:
Nevada: Ask your senator to reduce exorbitant patient application fees
Message:
Call your senator to oppose A.B. 528
A.B. 528,
which passed the Assembly on May 26, 42-0, will likely be voted on in the
Senate today. In a vacuum, the bill has a noble purpose. It will transfer money
“that is not needed to carry out” the Medical Marijuana Program to fund alcohol
and drug abuse programs for teens in the child welfare system. However, Nevada
medical marijuana patients already pay up to $242 to get an ID card, which is
much too expensive for many patients.
Please call your
senator and urge her or him to oppose A.B. 528 and lower exorbitant patient
registration fees instead.
The Division of Health
(DoH) charges patients $50 each year for an application, and an additional $150
application processing fee. Patients then must pay $11-22 at the DMV for the ID
card and $4-20 for fingerprinting. Patients are often low-income or
unemployed, and the legislature should ask the DoH to use excess program money
to lower patient fees.
In good news, S.B. 256,
which would have restricted medical marijuana cultivation, died in the Assembly
after passing the Senate, with the great work of our ally, Dave Schwartz.
