Medical Marijuana

medical-marijuana-card-patient-colorado Source: http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/12/12/Colorado-Marijuana-Card-1.jpeg

A couple of weeks ago the state of Colorado announced that starting in February 2014, the fee to be on the medical marijuana registry and to purchase medical marijuana from any licensed Colorado dispensary would drop from $35 to $15. This was a surprise to me and many others who call a medical marijuana dispensary “the office” since Colorado allows ANY person over 21 to purchase cannabis as of January 1st.

What this means is that the state of Colorado is anticipating that residents, who will be able to buy an ounce or less at a time, will balk once they see the high tax rate that will be applied to every sale (at least 30% in most parts of the state). Since these taxes are significantly lower for medical marijuana card holders, the price for the same product is significantly less than it will be for someone who will be purchasing without a red card.

Since proof of state residency is required to get a red card and be on the registry, this will still mean that out of state customers will have no choice but to pay the tax. In my opinion, most of the business for recreational marijuana will come from out of state residents who will want the novelty of purchasing legally from a store.

This entire thing is in stark contrast to how Washington, the only other state to legalize sale, is handling their state’s transition from medical to recreational; they are actually getting rid of medical altogether, which is causing seriously problems for their current medical patients there. I give Colorado a great deal of credit for not only choosing to keep medical, but also for allowing dispensaries who were already in good standing to convert and be able to sell to both patients and non-patients alike.

This new announcement of lower medical marijuana card fees is just another step in the right direction to help this potentially huge new market.

In this brave new world where marijuana is a retail product, it’s certainly going to be very interesting to see how this significantly reduced fee combined with heavy recreational taxes will affect the number of Colorado residents on the medical marijuana registry.