MMJ licensing leads to surplus in state coffers

Baylen at D'Alliance points us to a story on medical marijuana patients in Oregon and their caregivers. The caregivers grow the cannabis for those unable to grow it themselves. People like Shawn Flury, the director of Independence-based Oregon Green Cross, which provides two ounces of marijuana per month to each of its 35 patients donate their time and risk their safety from federal intervention to provide the herb to the sick and the dying for free. Under the system in Oregon, a caregiver is allowed to cultivate up to seven plants per patient. The caregivers tend to provide for more than one patient at a time as the demand is high and the cost of start-up is prohibitive. It's simply most cost effective to grow more plants.

The registration system provides no protection against federal intervention, it merely furnishes information for the use of law enforcement authorities in determining the legitimacy of any given grow.

Since the state started issuing registration cards, more than 10,000 people have signed up. The goal of the program was to pay for its own administrative costs but the registration fee has now been reduced since the agency found itself with a surplus of $986,000. Part of the surplus will go into the state's general fund. This money was generated just from MMJ patients. Think about the possible revenues if they simply allowed anyone to register as a consumer, with or without a medical reason.