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420 people have applied for a state card in the first six months of 2007
By Hempology | September 12, 2007
The Ukiah Daily Journal, CA
9 Sep 2007
Ben Brown
ZIP-TIES: MARIJUANA PATIENTS WAITING AND SEEING’ IF PROGRAM WORKS
Medical marijuana patients are cautiously optimistic about Sheriff Tom Allman’s zip-tie program, said NorCal NORML Director Dane Wilkins.
“We’re waiting and seeing,” Wilkins said. “We’re trying to encourage people to participate.”
The zip-tie program is Allman’s plan to streamline medical marijuana enforcement in Mendocino County. Each patient with a state-issued medical marijuana card can get 25 serial numbered zip-ties from the Sheriff’s Office.
Each zip tie is linked to an individual identification card to prevent fraud. The zip ties go around the base of each female flowering marijuana plant, allowing sheriff’s deputies to know at a glance if a medical marijuana garden is in compliance.
If a garden is in compliance, sheriff’s deputies are instructed to leave the garden alone. Wilkins said he has not heard of any medical patient using zip-ties having plants seized.
Wilkins said there are currently 60 people participating in the zip-tie program.
“I expect that number to grow by a large amount,” he said.
He said the bottleneck right now is in getting medical marijuana identification cards from the Mendocino County Department of Public Health.
Wilkins said 420 people have applied for a state card in the first six months of 2007, and the process can take up to four weeks.
“That causes lag,” he said.
The zip-ties are free this year while the Sheriff’s Office works out the kinks. No prices have been set for next year although Allman has said the Sheriff’s Office has considered charging $25 per zip-tie, with a half-price reduction for those on MediCal. Wilkins said that cost of entering the program has been a concern for some medical marijuana patients.
“Many of our patients are on a fixed income,” Wilkins said.
He said one idea that has been proposed is for the first six zip-ties to be free and the remaining 19 to cost $25 each.
“They feel like that’s a reasonable number of zip-ties, so no one would go without medicine who needs it,” Wilkins said.
Wilkins said there has also been talk within the community of creating a fund to buy zip-ties for those who cannot afford them.
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