Massachusetts Patients Remove Financial Barrier: No Longer Pay Patient Fees To Access Cannabis Program

From the Boston Globe — Starting in November, medical marijuana patients in Mass. will no longer have to pay annual fees:

Medical marijuana patients in Massachusetts will no longer have to pay annual registration or renewal fees starting in November, a long-sought change by patients who have called the fees a barrier to access.

Nichole Snow, executive director of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, applauded the decision, saying the removal of the fee was a “long time coming” with a lot of effort put in by patients and advocates.

“The fee was undue stress to receiving health care, and it was an obstruction,” she said. “What this really means is that patients are going to be treated equally, just like any other patient who is seeking out health care, and that is huge.”

Snow added that the $50 fee reinforced the stigma of using medical marijuana.

“It made us feel like it was a challenging hoop to go through in order to seek out medical marijuana as a health care option,” Snow said. “We felt outcasted and not like anyone else, and now we feel like we belong in the health care system.”

Full article here from Boston Globe Marijuana.