WASHINGTON — Maryland’s medical marijuana program hasn’t gotten started yet, and some advocates claim that the high fees that are proposed for growing and selling pot will cripple the program before it gets off the ground.
The Baltimore Sun reports that a state commission has proposed a $250,000 fee for a two-year license to grow medical marijuana, $40,000 a year for distributors. The growers’ fees would be the second-highest in the nation.
Del. Cheryl Glenn, D-Baltimore, tells The Sun that the proposed fees are “outrageous” and would lead to a situation where “we have the haves and the have-nots all over again.” Rachelle Yeung, legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based advocacy group, calls the fees unfair, saying that they “are almost certainly going to be passed on to the patients, and these are already people who have expensive medical bills and are dealing with debilitating medical conditions.”
The proposed fees didn’t stop more than 100 prospective growers and dispensors from attending a seminar in Bethesda on getting started in the business, The Sun reports.
State officials say that the fees are what’s needed to make the program pay for itself, and rates could still change.
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