Patient advocates react to proposed medical marijuana tax

By MEGAN HALL

Providence, RI – Joanne Lepannen is the leader of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, or RIPAC. She doesn't like Chafee's plan to tax medical marijuana, but not prescription drugs.
"The fact that medical cannabis is not being treated in the same manner and in the same regard that prescription medication would be maybe create a public perception that it is not the same medicine," Lepannen says.

She says the she's also worried the tax will make it even harder for low income patients to buy their medicine.

The yet to open medical marijuana dispensaries plan to charge around 250 dollars to 400 dollars an ounce. The so-called 'compassion centers' would also pay a four percent surcharge under Chafee's plan.

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