Supporters angered over registration fee

HELENA — Some supporters of the recent voter-approved initiative to legalize medical marijuana are miffed after the state announced it will charge $200 per person to be added to the state marijuana registry.

Robin Prosser of Missoula called the registration fee “exorbitant.”

“This is a pretty high cost just to get a card,” said Prosser, who is suffering from an immunosuppressive disorder. “A driver’s license doesn’t cost that much. It’s like charging people for handicapped stickers for their car.”

The Department of Public Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that it had established the state registry that those wishing to use medical marijuana must add their name to. Upon written recommendation from their doctors, patients with certain medical conditions are added to the confidential list and issued a card that permits them to have as many as six marijuana plants and an ounce of marijuana.

The Medical Marijuana Act, which passed with a 62 percent vote majority last month, protects registered patients and their caregivers from local and state prosecution, even though federal law prohibits possession and use of the drug.

Roy Kemp, head of the state’s Licensure Bureau, said the new law didn’t come with any funding. He said the $200 fee is necessary to keep the new database and the registration service financially self-sufficient.

“We had to come up with a fee that would enable us to administer the program as the voters intended,” Kemp said in a written statement. “We tried to keep the fee as low as possible without putting the program in jeopardy. Given the cost of most medical treatments, we think $200 is not unreasonable.”

Prosser is one of the 30 Montanans who have already requested an application for the registry. But she said Tuesday that she won’t be sending the forms back to Helena.

“I got my application in the mail Friday and I was stunned to say the least,” Prosser said.

Prosser, 47, who uses marijuana to ease chronic bone pain, muscle spasms, nausea, was charged with drug possession and drug paraphernalia possession last May.

Prosser said she’s exhausted from campaigning for the medical marijuana initiative and doesn’t know if she’ll lobby the 2005 Legislature to reduce or eliminate the $200 fee.