August 5, 2010 – WASHINGTON — No one should be too poor to buy pot if they live in Washington, at least if the marijuana is for a medical condition. That’s the conclusion of a new medical marijuana law enacted in the nation’s capital.

The District of Columbia passed a law earlier this year that allows residents to legally obtain the drug for medical reasons. But it also includes a provision unlike the 14 other states with medical marijuana laws, requiring the drug to be provided at a discount to poor residents who qualify. Who will get the reduced-price marijuana and how much it will cost, however, is still being worked out.

“Obviously because there’s no roadmap on how to do this, it may require some tweaking over time,” said David Catania, a D.C. councilman and the chairman of the city health committee that drafted the law. “We may, in fact, set an example for other states.”

The first round of regulations implementing the law is expected to be released Friday. It may answer some questions about how low-income residents will be treated, but the regulations will also be revised over several months, and patients aren’t expected to be able to purchase medical marijuana in the city until 2011.

Right now the law says that patients “unable to afford a sufficient supply of medical marijuana” will be able to purchase it “on a sliding scale.” Low-income patients will also get a discount on a required city registration fee. Dispensaries, meanwhile, will have to devote some revenue to providing marijuana to needy patients.

The range of what the drug will ultimately cost low-income residents is anyone’s guess. On the illegal market, an ounce of marijuana can range from about $100-$140, according recent police estimates. City officials have estimated that an ounce from a dispensary will cost about $350 and that the average user will purchase about that much a month, though up to two ounces would be permitted. While one city report suggests 300 people would buy marijuana in the first year – a number some consider low – no one knows yet how many would qualify for a reduced rate. One guess is 30 percent, about the same as the percentage of the district’s population that is on Medicaid.

Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for the legalization of marijuana, said the city will have to be careful that dispensary prices aren’t too different from what it costs to buy marijuana illegally, a price he estimated ranges from $200 to $500 an ounce. If buying marijuana at a dispensary costs more, some people – poor patients in particular – may just keep buying illegally.

No other states require dispensaries to provide the drug at a discount, though in November residents in Berkeley, Calif., will vote on a ballot measure that could require dispensaries there to provide free marijuana to poor patients. A number of California dispensaries already voluntarily do that for patients who can prove hardship.

“I think that ethic of taking care of people who can’t take care of themselves has been part of the medical cannabis movement from the beginning,” said Steve DeAngelo, the executive director of Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif., which until recently had a program that gave out free weekly “care packages” to about 600 patients on unemployment or pensions.

For Washington residents, qualifying for a reduced rate may also be tied to the federal poverty level. The city has among the highest poverty rates in the nation – only Mississippi is substantially higher – and more than 1 in 3 residents get some form of health care assistance.

Teresa Skipper, an HIV-positive resident who uses marijuana to stop frequent nausea and help her eat, said she hopes the new law will make getting the drug easier for her since she is a Medicaid patient. She would like to get the drug legally, but she says she can’t and won’t pay more than the $50 an ounce she pays on the illegal market.

“People under the poverty level and below shouldn’t have to pay anything,” said Skipper, who uses about an ounce a week. She’s waiting to see what officials will decide, but she said it may not change much for her.

“Marijuana is like gas and food to me. It’s in the budget,” she said. By JESSICA GRESKO. Source.

November 12, 2009 – The U.S. Justice Dept., at the direction of the Obama Administration, last month announced that it would no longer direct federal investigative resources to pursue criminal charges against medical marijuana clinics, providing they are operating lawfully. The policy represents a major shift in tactics from the Bush Administration, which had federal agents raiding medical marijuana distributors on the basis of violating federal statutes (federal law outlaws marijuana possession under the Controlled Substances Act) — even if the operators were in compliance with state laws.

Will the new Obama policy kick off an entrepreneurial bonanza in the 13 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) where medical cannabis is legal? Maybe, experts say, citing the proliferation of medical marijuana training centers in recent years and a plan by one California business to begin franchising the dispensaries. But while the potential for a large medical marijuana market exists, cannabis remains mired in legal ambiguities and political sensitivities that — while changing rapidly — are still difficult for entrepreneurs to navigate.

To start, most of the 13 states do not allow storefront dispensaries; they permit medical patients to grow their own marijuana or purchase it directly from a registered grower certified by the state. In the rare places that do allow dispensaries, they must be structured as nonprofit cooperatives rather than for-profit entities, with marijuana provided by state-certified patients or their caregivers.

Neighborhood nuisance
In California, the first state to legalize medical marijuana sales and use in 1996, this nonprofit requirement came in mid-2008, when State Attorney General Jerry Brown issued guidelines for medical marijuana operations to try to rein in the hundreds — if not thousands — of for-profit dispensaries that had cropped up, many turning into neighborhood nuisances, with doctors on staff who would write prescriptions for anyone who walked through the doors. (California’s guidelines stating they should be nonprofit aren’t law; they’re in an opinion issued by Brown.)

Now the epicenter of the regulated medical marijuana movement is in Oakland, Calif., where four licensed cannabis dispensaries operate under strict city and state guidelines. This summer, the city’s voters approved by 80 percent a special 1.8 percent sales tax on marijuana sales that will go directly into the city’s general fund, says Steve DeAngelo, the founder of nonprofit dispensary Harborside Health Center. He and his attorney, James Anthony, devised the idea of the special tax while discussing the city’s financial straits.

Harborside, which looks something like a tidy community bank, does $20 million in annual sales, has 30,000 registered patients in its collective, and 75 full-time employees, DeAngelo says. His product is tested for purity and potency at a laboratory he helped found, he says, adding that during the past year’s recession his staff grew from 43 to 75, and says he pays each a living wage, provides them with health insurance and paid leave, and has recently added a pension program.

A lifelong cannabis activist and entrepreneur, DeAngelo has also come up with a new business idea. He recently founded for-profit Harborside Management Associates, a firm that currently does consulting for cannabis dispensaries and hopes to become America’s first franchised medical marijuana operation.

College course
Also located in Oakland is Oaksterdam University, a non-accredited private educational facility that teaches would-be dispensary owners to operate their own medical marijuana clinics. About 6,000 students have gone through its certificate program, which meets two hours a week for 13 weeks, says Greg Grimala, an Oaksterdam spokesperson.

While there is no requirement for dispensary operators to be certified, education and training may help entrepreneurs gain local approval for the facilities. “It’s very, very important for people who want to open dispensaries to work with their local government,” Grimala says. “It’s the local government that’s going to dictate whether they want to have this business in their neighborhood. If you open up in a city that does not want you there, they’ll find a way to force you out.”

Capital requirements for a new dispensary are $80,000 to $100,000 minimum, Grimala says. Richard Lee, who founded Oaksterdam University, agrees. He operates the Coffee Shop Blue Sky in Oakland, a combination for-profit coffee shop and for-profit medical marijuana dispensary that he says brings in $3 million in annual revenue. (Oakland’s local ordinance calls for no “excessive” profit, and Lee says so far the city has not deemed his dispensary to be making excessive profits.)

DeAngelo says he advises clients to plan on $250,000 in startup costs for larger operations like his own at Harborside. Along with purchasing marijuana plants and supplies, doing testing, staffing the facility, and providing adequate security, local jurisdictions often impose fees for licensing or conditional use permits, he says.

No cash cow
“If you think this is the newest way to make lots of money, I’d say get into another business,” DeAngelo says. “Even if you’re wildly successful and make a lot of money, you’re going to have to give that back to the community” because of the nonprofit business model, which he supports for the future.

“This is an opportunity for social entrepreneurs, who are willing to help suffering people feel better and expand the zone of freedom in our country. The type of person who should get into this business will be looking for less tangible rewards,” he says.

Bruce Mirken, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a lobbying and educational organization that advocates legalizing, regulating, and taxing marijuana, says that even in the states with the most liberal laws, storefront dispensaries exist in something of a gray area. While federal enforcement conflicted with state law, many cities were reluctant to issue formal guidelines for dispensaries, leaving the operators in legal limbo, he says. “Things will continue to evolve, and my guess is that more states will be open in time, but that’s anybody’s guess,” Mirken says.

Still, in the past several years, model dispensaries and industry best practices have begun to emerge. The Medical Cannabis Safety Council, in conjunction with other medical cannabis policy groups, is attempting to establish a self-regulatory model built on non-profit industries such as hospital emergency rooms, says Mickey Martin, a founding project adviser for the group and associate editor for West Coast Cannabis Magazine.

Ballot initiative
DeAngelo says he is optimistic about his company’s fortunes. “I believe the Obama Administration is being honest with us when they say we won’t be raided by the federal government if we’re in scrupulous compliance with state law and local regulations,” he says. He and other activists are collecting signatures to place a marijuana legalization initiative on the California ballot next year.

Tax Cannabis 2010 would allow cities and counties throughout the state to tax and regulate marijuana for adult use. “We think it will bring our laws in line with reality,” Grimala says. Even if that initiative is approved by voters — and it is certain to draw fierce opposition — DeAngelo says he will push for the industry to remain not-for-profit. “The country should get it right this time. Let’s take care of our cities and our schools and not give this one to the multinational corporations,” he says.

While he favors allowing adult recreational use, he says he is horrified by the idea of children being exposed to over-the-counter marijuana sales. “Do we want kids to walk into 7-Eleven past cigarettes and booze — and marijuana also? Do we want them to open up Rolling Stone and see a two-page glossy spread for reefers?”
by Karen E. Klein. Source.