Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
Members of the medical marijuana community are questioning what the say are high prices and limited supply at the state's three medical marijuana compassion centers -- and are blasting the state for no legislative oversight of the facilities as mandated by law.
"Recently I've been getting a lot of complaints from patients about what's going on at the compassion centers," said Bill Cotton, who founded the B&B Medical Marijuana Evaluation Center. "I had a patient call and tell me compassion centers are charging $240 for a half ounce, and will only sell in grams or eighths. The average price off a caregiver is $200 an ounce -- at the compassion centers, it's $350 to $400 an ounce."
"The compassion centers are saying the caregivers are charging them too much," said Cotton. "You'd think there would be enough on the shelves. 60% of the patients I see are on Social Security. These compassion centers are supposed to be helping the most in need."
Cotton noted that the enabling legislation called for a legislative oversight committee -- which he says hasn't met.
"So when we get complaints like this -- who do we complain to? They blocked the oversight committee," said Cotton. "What the state needs is to not limit the amount of compassion centers, so that prices can come down and have some variety."
Issues Broached
The three medical marijuana centers in Rhode Island are the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence, Greenleaf Compassionate Care in Portsmouth, and the Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick.
Dr. Seth Bock, CEO of the Greenleaf, said that the facility sees on average 100 patients a day, said the limit was 2.5 ounces every fifteen days, as mandated by law, and that price point is determined by a "host of factors" -- quality of product and cost of production.
For sales at the center, there is a seven percent sales tax, and four percent compassion center tax.
Patients have recently posted complaints on the Facebook pages for Greenleaf and Slater, the first two Compassion Centers.
"My god this place fell off bad not only all there prices go up all the time they also never have what you need haven't seen a oz in months nor oil hash went up so much they only give half grams so they can make more money sad how bad things are it's all about the money now !!@@!" wrote one patient about Slate on September 12.
"No open appointments until 11/2/15?!?! How on earth did this happen? I'm incredibly disappointed. And out of meds. Which means endless ER trips," wrote another patient for Greenleaf on Thursday.
Peter Benson, a medical marijuana caregiver in the state, shared his concerns on Friday.
"I've been hearings there's small amounts about what [patients] can purchase, it just doesn't seem to add up," said Benson. "The compassion centers have an unlimited grow -- I would think by now, the licenses were issued two years ago, you'd think there would be plenty of supply. It's hard to figure out why this is happening."
Cost Factors
"They're either artificially inflating prices -- we're heard some background noise they're trying to get rid of caregivers -- or they're just not good at managing them," said Benson. "Remember, the state makes all their money at the compassion centers, caregivers don't pay taxes."
"Setting the price at $450 an ounce, why would you want to sent sell 2 ounces at $400 range when you could cut prices, to $250, which is average for a caregiver, you could sell 20 ounces, you could make much more money," said Benson. "We just want to know what's going on."
Benson said he was "definitely not anti-dispensary" but wanted the oversight committee, which has never been in place, to be doing the job it was assigned to do.
"I'm not anti-dispensary, " said Benson. "There's a place for them, every patient can have 2 caregivers, I've always encouraged my patients to put a dispensary down as one of the options, in case their caregiver had a problem with a harvest, they could go there."
"But it's clear we need to change the law," said Benson. 'The oversight committee needs to be in place -- and ask if they're meting the need of patients, do we need another dispensary, those types of question. Those are the types of things we'd adjust the program accordingly. There's the cost factor, and the shortage factor."
"I know that 50% of the [medical marijuana] population is on some kind of financial assistance. We need to be doing better," said Benson.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Are Medical Marijuana Centers Gouging Patients?
Author: Kate Nagle
Contact: Contact GoLocalProv
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: GoLocal Providence
"Recently I've been getting a lot of complaints from patients about what's going on at the compassion centers," said Bill Cotton, who founded the B&B Medical Marijuana Evaluation Center. "I had a patient call and tell me compassion centers are charging $240 for a half ounce, and will only sell in grams or eighths. The average price off a caregiver is $200 an ounce -- at the compassion centers, it's $350 to $400 an ounce."
"The compassion centers are saying the caregivers are charging them too much," said Cotton. "You'd think there would be enough on the shelves. 60% of the patients I see are on Social Security. These compassion centers are supposed to be helping the most in need."
Cotton noted that the enabling legislation called for a legislative oversight committee -- which he says hasn't met.
"So when we get complaints like this -- who do we complain to? They blocked the oversight committee," said Cotton. "What the state needs is to not limit the amount of compassion centers, so that prices can come down and have some variety."
Issues Broached
The three medical marijuana centers in Rhode Island are the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence, Greenleaf Compassionate Care in Portsmouth, and the Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick.
Dr. Seth Bock, CEO of the Greenleaf, said that the facility sees on average 100 patients a day, said the limit was 2.5 ounces every fifteen days, as mandated by law, and that price point is determined by a "host of factors" -- quality of product and cost of production.
For sales at the center, there is a seven percent sales tax, and four percent compassion center tax.
Patients have recently posted complaints on the Facebook pages for Greenleaf and Slater, the first two Compassion Centers.
"My god this place fell off bad not only all there prices go up all the time they also never have what you need haven't seen a oz in months nor oil hash went up so much they only give half grams so they can make more money sad how bad things are it's all about the money now !!@@!" wrote one patient about Slate on September 12.
"No open appointments until 11/2/15?!?! How on earth did this happen? I'm incredibly disappointed. And out of meds. Which means endless ER trips," wrote another patient for Greenleaf on Thursday.
Peter Benson, a medical marijuana caregiver in the state, shared his concerns on Friday.
"I've been hearings there's small amounts about what [patients] can purchase, it just doesn't seem to add up," said Benson. "The compassion centers have an unlimited grow -- I would think by now, the licenses were issued two years ago, you'd think there would be plenty of supply. It's hard to figure out why this is happening."
Cost Factors
"They're either artificially inflating prices -- we're heard some background noise they're trying to get rid of caregivers -- or they're just not good at managing them," said Benson. "Remember, the state makes all their money at the compassion centers, caregivers don't pay taxes."
"Setting the price at $450 an ounce, why would you want to sent sell 2 ounces at $400 range when you could cut prices, to $250, which is average for a caregiver, you could sell 20 ounces, you could make much more money," said Benson. "We just want to know what's going on."
Benson said he was "definitely not anti-dispensary" but wanted the oversight committee, which has never been in place, to be doing the job it was assigned to do.
"I'm not anti-dispensary, " said Benson. "There's a place for them, every patient can have 2 caregivers, I've always encouraged my patients to put a dispensary down as one of the options, in case their caregiver had a problem with a harvest, they could go there."
"But it's clear we need to change the law," said Benson. 'The oversight committee needs to be in place -- and ask if they're meting the need of patients, do we need another dispensary, those types of question. Those are the types of things we'd adjust the program accordingly. There's the cost factor, and the shortage factor."
"I know that 50% of the [medical marijuana] population is on some kind of financial assistance. We need to be doing better," said Benson.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Are Medical Marijuana Centers Gouging Patients?
Author: Kate Nagle
Contact: Contact GoLocalProv
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: GoLocal Providence
