It is immoral to tax medicine. Period. Full stop.
That should be the message Gov. Phil Murphy tells Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin when they meet to discuss amendments to medical marijuana legislation. The people who rely on the drug should not be considered a source of revenue as they are now; they should be considered patients that are struggling to afford their medicine just like everybody else.
The problem is that medical marijuana patients in our state have always been treated differently. Unlike people who are prescribed opiates, there is a $100 registration fee to get your medicine for a couple years before you have to pay the fee again.
Once a patient is registered they can get their prescription at the most expensive prices in the entire nation. Prices can range anywhere from $340 to $520 for an ounce, but the kicker is that the sales tax is applied to it; which can cost another $22 to $35. By the time a person gets their medicine it could cost at least $462 – likely much more – for one ounce. That is completely unfair to the patient.