This is the time of year when I take some time to reflect over the past twelve months and prepare myself for the opportunities that lay ahead in the New Year.

2012 was bittersweet. On one hand, we moved the fight for safe access to medical cannabis forward – adding two new medical cannabis states, Connecticut and Massachusetts; legislatures in a dozen states considered medical cannabis bills; current medical cannabis states tried to tackle regulation and implementation; new and influential allies joined the fight, like the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Americans Herbal Products association (AHPA); and the election brought with it new allies in the Senate and House.

But nineteen of our brothers and sisters spent their holidays in prison, and a half a dozen more will be joining them in the next few months. Millions of patients are left without access following aggressive raids and landlord threats. US Attorneys seem to be hell bent on destroying access models built by states and cities across the country.

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Recently, the California State Board of Equalization asked for comments on a conceptual proposal to exempt terminally ill patients from paying sales tax on cannabis provided by dispensaries. In California, as in many other states, medications prescribed by doctors are not taxable. Below is Americans for Safe Access’ letter to the Board of Equalization.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is encouraged that the Board of Equalization (BOE) is considering revising the present system which subjects medical cannabis patients to retail sales tax when purchasing their medicine; however, we have concerns about patient privacy and fairness that makes the proposal untenable in it’s present form.

The idea to grant a waiver to terminally ill patients from having to pay sales tax raises a number of concerns. In order to become eligible for such a waiver, a patient would have to disclose their specific medical condition to BOE or another agency. In addition to forcing patients to disclose their condition or even their greater medical history to receive the benefit of not having to pay sales tax, the state would be put in the precarious position of determining what patients are sick enough to earn a sales tax exemption.

Instead, ASA feels a more appropriate approach would be to treat medical cannabis sales in the same manner as other sales of medicine in California by not taxing patients for the purchase of medicine from a health care facility. An approach that better meets the spirit of Revenue & Taxation Code § 6369(a)(3), (“Sales of medicines are exempt from sales and use taxes if…(3) furnished by a health facility for patient treatment pursuant to the order of a licensed physician.”) would be more appropriate for the BOE to adopt. Rather than taxing patients for the purchase of their medicine, the BOE should consider other ways of raising revenue from the medical cannabis industry that do not directly affect patients, many of whom are low-income and permanent chronic debilitating conditions that are not terminal.
ASA thanks the Board for offering the chance to comment and would gladly welcome any opportunity to further discuss revising sales tax for medical cannabis purchases.

Mike Liszewski is ASA’s Policy Director.

A coalition of medical cannabis patients, providers, and organized labor submitted 70,000 signatures on Friday to qualify a voter initiative for the May ballot in Los Angeles. The Committee to Protect Patients and Neighborhoods (CPPN), which includes Americans for Safe Access (ASA), developed the voter initiative to establish sensible regulations for medical cannabis patients’ cooperatives and collectives in the city. The proposal would limit the number of facilities in the city to those that meet certain criteria – opening date, proximity to sensitive uses, hours of operation, etc.

Advocates are turning to the voter initiative process in Los Angeles because they are increasingly frustrated with the City Council’s progress on long-standing promises to protect access for patients. The City Council spent years creating an adopting a flawed ordinance in 2010, but numerous lawsuits (by patients’ associations and the city) rendered the measure unenforceable. After settlement talks with the City Attorney collapsed earlier this year, Councilmember Huizar introduced and quickly passed an ordinance that effectively banned all cooperatives and collectives in the city. CPPN mounted a successful voter referendum to force the repeal of the ban, but the city still has no regulations for medical cannabis.

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