Medical marijuana fees put patients on fixed incomes in bind
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EUGENE, Ore. - Elvy Musikka relies on medical marijuana to get through her day.
The 73-year-old Eugene grandmother joined Oregon's medical marijuana program in 2005 to treat her glaucoma.
Musikka also receives medical marijuana from the federal government as part of a now discontinued research program created in 1978.
But she said that medicine is so old it's no good.
"In other words, it probably would have been very nice as hemp for wearing but it obviously was no medicine for glaucoma," she said. "I cannot work with 11-year old garbage."
Fresher marijuana under Oregon's program filled the gap.
"I was getting 3 pounds from the State of Oregon and what I was doing was mixing it up," said Musikka from her home in South Eugene.
Last October, the state imposed new fees on medical marijuana card holders. The new fees doubled the annual cost of getting a medical marijuana card to $200. It also imposed grower fees of $50 and, if patients switch growers or change the address where it's grown, the state charges an additional $100.
"This is not something I wanted to do," said State Representative Peter Buckley. "We faced the largest budget gap in Oregon's history, $3.8 billion."
Buckley said some of those additional fees are being used by the state to subsidize state health services including family planning, clean drinking water programs and emergency health services.
"We raised fees in many different areas in order to try to cover vital programs that absolutely had to keep going," said Buckley.
Still Musikka said that fee increase directly affects her.
"For them to come at us and ask for a hundred dollars from us, I find that very criminal," said Musikka.
She lives on a fixed income of $700 a month and said she she's now been forced to drop out of the program. And she said she's not alone, dozens of others have also been forced to drop out because of costs.
"I lost sight unnecessarily because of the change in those rules," she said.
She said without her Oregon medicine, her glaucoma has steadily gotten worse, resulting in two separate eye surgeries.
"It turned into two detached retinas, it turned into me being completely blind for a month."
She said she's trying to get by on what she has, but if continues to not be able to afford her Oregon Medical Marijuana card, she's worried about her eyesight.
"Sure I could get some help and get that card now because people have come forward and want to pay for it for me. But I don't want to be a charity case to be able to use my prescription in Oregon."
Another stunning success for 'Tax & Regulate', and NORML...
I want to know how they plan to tax something that can be grown in your home without anybody ever knowing...How can you tax something that can't be regulated...the medical card for people who actually need it is the most logical way of doing that..although if i was to grow pot and sell it to my neighbor under the table..how is the GOV gonna tax it???the GOV would have to conduct searchs of your home, or monitor you bank accounts or something like that..I find the argument that legalize it and tax it ,is highly unlikely to be profitable for the GOV unless they work like the IRS. I don't blame the GOV for raising the fees on medical pot...most of the people I know with a card are just using it as an excuse to get stoned...it may in fact relieve pain, etc...but they would be smoking it regardless of it being medical or recreational.
It's necessary for me to have "Medical" Vodka most Fridays after a tough work week.  I want a special card, low-cost, TAX FREE vodka....just like these potheads - I want free, or at least really cheap, access to my medicine of choice.  Let's set up a bunch of sham "doctors" to prescribe this for me and then make the taxpayers pay a portion of the cost of my "meds."     (yes, sarcasm) Those of you who really think that GOV gives a damn about your needs are fooling yourselves, this is a taxable product and we're finally turning the corner.  It's time to legalize weed, tax it just like any other "sin" so that all of you TOOLS that smoke it can start paying your "fair" share, effectively "spreading the wealth around." Â
When "We the People" (of the State of Oregon) voted to allow medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation in November of 1998, we voted for the Oregon Medical Marijuana (registration) Program (OMMP) to be self funded, NOT a "cash cow" to fund other Oregon Health Authority programs, no matter how needed the other programs might be. I know a quadriplegic who used to be charged $20 annually to register for the OMMP, and his annual registration fee went up to $100, a five time increase on this person on Social Security Disability...the extra $80 going to fund other programs. His supplier ("grower") now would have to pay a $50 fee to provide this quadriplegic's cannabis medicine, and cannot be paid for labor. Since this quadriplegic can no longer afford the fee increase, his use of narcotic pain medicine and medicine for muscle spasms has increased dramatically, with less symptom control. The Oregon Health Plan pays for his prescriptions.  The increase in the cost of his increased prescriptions FAR exceeds the extra $80 the state would have gotten from this quadriplegic. How sad! How senseless!
I am not now and am not likely to ever be in favor of 'medical' marijuana; with that said, I think jacking up the fees for it and then saying it was because of "family planning, clean drinking water programs and emergency health services" is disingenuous at best. Actually, it is no guts by the politicians to increase taxes so they just increase 'fees'.
 @hewhoo If you read the book "Marijuana Gateway to Health: how Cannabis Protects Us from Cancer and Alzheimer's Disease" I bet you will change your opinion of medical marijuana. Our bodies make compounds, endocannabinoids which work to prevent disease-producing internal environments, interrupt any disease process that gets a hold in our bodies and to trigger our intrinsic repair mechanisms. The marijuana plant produces plant cannabinoids that supplement and amplify these protective activities. The book has over 200 foot notes, mostly from peer reviewed medical journals and explains the entire biological process in easy-to-understand language.
If you want to fill the huge gaps in your budget. Cut teachers wages. And the impossible State employee retirement plans. Do something realistic for a change. $150 extra dollars from every patient in Oregon would only be around $4,500,000. That will fall into your gap and never be seen again. It is not about charging more for everything. It is about not stealing all the taxpayers money and giving to state employees. Their unions must be destroyed.
@givupongod It is about the stupid programs that do nothing and the bureaucrats that line their pockets not the civil servants who teach our children and care for our injured or unemployed. Cut from the top not the bottom. Teachers work hard administrators hide in an office and collect the big pay with the big retirement not the teachers or the average civil servant. It is wrong to charge an extra fee for MM rather than to charge a fee for river access when the money is for river restoration.
More unfair revenue ideas from our state government. The increase was to help pay for river restoration. So they claimed. Why do only Medical pot users have to pay for it. Why not everyone who has a script for Vicodin pay for it? It would be much more profitable. Or how about every child who plays sports pays double for signing up.Â
 This was totally unfair. And just plain B.S.
It's so stupid to fight marijuana; it is effective, safe, and has over a thousand years of use. Marijuana is a very healthy food if taken as an edible, not smoked. There is a great $2.99 e-book on medical marijuana: MARIJUANA - Guide to Buying, Growing, Harvesting, and Making Medical Marijuana Oil and Delicious Candies to Treat Pain and Ailments by Mary Bendis, Second Edition. This book has great recipes for easy marijuana oil, delicious Cannabis Chocolates, and tasty Dragon Teeth Mints. goo.gl/iYjPn goo.gl/Jfs61
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I'm in the same boat.