Ohio medical cannabis patients and caregivers will soon only need to pay one penny to obtain or renew their registrations, regulators have announced. And in New Jersey, the state is fully eliminating the cost of obtaining a medical cannabis card.
As Ohio prepares to implement a voter-approved adult-use legalization law, the Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) says that, effective March 4, the annual fees ($50 for patients and $25 for caregivers) will drop to one cent. Once regulators are able to update vendor software, the plan is to completely remove the fee.
"The DCC understands that a one cent charge is not ideal," it said in a notice on Tuesday, "however, at this time the Division feels it is appropriate and necessary to provide this immediate financial relief for patients and caregivers in the short term while working toward a full fee elimination as soon as the updates to the registry can be made."
The fee elimination is part of an initial package of rules that DCC released earlier this month to implement adult-use legalization. That rollout currently calls for sales to begin in September, but the governor and lawmakers have pushed for legislation to speed up that process by allowing existing medical cannabis dispensaries to begin selling to adult consumers earlier.
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