Facing mutiny from counties and complaints from hundreds of advocates, the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) decided to raise the state portion of the medical marijuana ID card fee to $66 ($33 for Medi-Cal recipients) rather than to $142 ($71 for Medi-Cal patients). Thank you to the more than 360 of you who took the time to write Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the CDHS to urge them to abandon the counterproductive increase. Well done!

Although a major crisis in the program has been averted, the medical marijuana ID card program budget is still strained. S.B. 420 — which instituted the ID cards — requires that the ID card fees cover the program's operating budget. The program will also have to pay back a $1.5 million loan. But the ID card program is running a substantial deficit: Although CDHS anticipated issuing 150,000 ID cards, it has only issued about 10,000 as of this month. One of the major reasons for the shortfall is that more than half of all counties — including several major ones — have yet to implement the program (seven more have approved it but are not yet issuing cards). While participation in the ID card program is voluntary for patients, counties are required to offer them.

If your county hasn't implemented the ID card program yet, please contact your county board of supervisors or department of health to ask them to do so without further delay. Click here to see what stage your county is at in implementing ID cards, and to find out who you should contact if they haven't yet been implemented. For talking points to use with your county health departments and supervisors, please click here.

This partial victory resulted from pressure from counties, state legislators, and advocates. County supervisors in San Francisco and Lake Counties considered abandoning the state ID card program completely, realizing that with the full fee increase, most patients would not have been able to afford the cards. Given that about one-third of all of the ID cards that have been issued are to San Francisco patients, it quickly became apparent that the fee increase could spell the demise of the entire ID program.

At the same time, the Marijuana Policy Project joined Safe Access Now, Americans for Safe Access, and the Drug Policy Alliance in mobilizing supporters to oppose the fee increase, which was scheduled to take effect on March 1. In all, more than 1,000 emails from patients and advocates protesting the increase were sent to the CDHS and Gov. Schwarzenegger. Additionally we were able to generate several letters from county supervisors throughout the state, expressing their concern over CDHS's proposed increase. Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) worked to persuade the Department of Health Services to find a solution. In addition to being lower than was initially announced, the fee increase will take effect a month later — on April 1.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. Please pass this on to other compassionate Californians. For more information on how you can bring this important program to your county, contact Safe Access Now at safeaccessnow@gmail.com.