Feb 28th, Sacramento. After an outburst of protest from medical marijuana advocates, the California Department of Health Services significantly cut back an announced fee hike for state medical marijuana ID cards effective April 1st.

Originally, the department had announced it would be raising its charge for the ID cards from $13 to $142. Because counties charge additional fees for the cards, the total cost to patients would have been close to $200. Patient advocates strongly opposed the hike, arguing that that it would make the card unaffordable and destroy the program.

Instead of charging $142, the state will charge $66 for its costs., making the total cost closer to $100. Medi-Cal patients get a 50 percent discount. The cutback was announced by Assemblyman Mark Leno, who thanked DHS Director Sandra Shewry for responding to public outcry against the increase.

A coalition of cannabis reform groups, including NORML, ASA, MPP, and Axis of Love helped lobbied against the fee hike. In addition to Leno, several county supervisors spoke out. San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi proposed a resolution calling on the city to drop out of the state ID program if the full $142 fee hike were approved. Since San Francisco has far more registrants in the state ID card system (3,421) than any other county, that would have threatened the state program with collapse.

The DHS was forced to order the hike in order to cover costs of the program, which by law must be paid by the card fees. The DHS needs to pay off a $1+ million loan that was used to pay for start-up costs.

Opponents of the hike argued that the card program would collapse if DHS raised its fee to $144, leaving it holding the bag for the entire loan. At the lower rate, there is a better chance that the program will survive and eventually pay off its costs.

Enrollment in the state program has run far below expectations. While the state originally forecast 150,000 card applicants, only 8,700 had enrolled as of January 2007.

One reason for the disappointing enrollment is that less than half of the state’s 58 counties have implemented the card program. Some counties are awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit by San Diego and San Bernardino, which challenged the program’s legality on the grounds that it violates federal law. Although the suit was rejected by San Diego Superior Court Judge William Nevitt, an appeal is pending, Advocates are hopeful that enrollment will pick up after Los Angeles county begins issuing cards, which is expected to happen this spring.

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The cutback was announced by Assemblyman Mark Leno, who thanked DHS Director Sandra Shewry for responding to public outcry against the increase.

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Another major reason for low enrollment has been that many patients are reluctant to register out of fear of losing their privacy.

Based on historical experience, California NORML regards these fears as overblown. No patient has ever been arrested for having registered in a medical marijuana ID program. Several states, including Oregon, have mandatory patient registration programs but have experienced no problems with patient privacy. California’s system is more secure than other state programs in that only the patient’s number and picture - not name or address - are kept in the state’s data base, though counties often retain additional information.

Federal officials have repeatedly disavowed interest in going after individual patients, and would face political and legal problems in trying to do so. Tens of thousands of patient names have been seized by law enforcement in the course of DEA raids on dispensaries and cannabis clinics; yet the federal government has never tried to prosecute individual patients, only those growing and providing for others.