Illinois officials have reworked the state's medical marijuana rules, lowering an annual patient registration fee to $100 and removing a previous ban on gun ownership by pot users.
The regulations will control how the state's latest medical marijuana laws -- which will allow qualifying registered patients to buy a 2.5-ounce supply every two weeks -- will be applied.
However, while lowering the cost of a patient card from $150 to 100, regulators said fees required to open a dispensary or grow house would remain at an intentionally high level, to guarantee entrepreneurs would possess sufficient capital for successful operation.
"We want to make sure they have a viable operation," health department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said. "We want to make sure patients have an adequate supply of quality product."
Some prospective marijuana entrepreneurs said such mandated financial requirements would discourage them from entering the field.
"Now that we've seen the financial requirements, there may be people on the fence who are saying, 'All right, I'm out,'" said Nick Williams, a partner in a new firm that intends to apply to obtain for a dispensary license.
Under the proposed rule, growers would have to pay fees of $225,000 the first year, keep $500,00 in cash on hand as well as demonstrate possession of an escrow account of surety bond of $2 million.
The high financial obligation could squeeze out all but the biggest growers and dispensaries and lead to exorbitant prices for patients, Williams said.
The issue of gun ownership had been a difficult one since the first draft of the proposed regulations was made public in January, with many patients saying they would prefer to use pot illegally if they were forced surrender their firearms owner ID cards, a requirement in the draft rules.
"I'm happy to see that [the regulators] have changed the provision," said State Rep. Lou Lang, a Democrat and sponsor of the state's medical marijuana legislation who is a member of the committee set to vote to approve or turn down the rules. "I did ask them to remove it. I'm not the only person who did."
However, despite the decision by the state regulators, federal law still contains prohibitions against users of marijuana possessing a firearms, said Thomas Ahern of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
