New York’s medical cannabis program is in crisis. Without timely changes from state lawmakers during the current legislative session, patients will continue to suffer and lose access.

Patients gathered in Albany last week to fight for the medical cannabis program and improve affordability of critical medical-grade products. One of their demands was elimination of the medical cannabis excise tax. Right now, in New York, there is an additional tax on purchases of medical cannabis that does not apply to other medications.

The excise tax, as it’s known, was reduced from 7% to 3.15% last year – a good step forward, but not enough to provide patients with true relief. NYMCIA members and patient advocates continue to demand that cannabis to be treated like all prescription medications and be completely exempt from the excise tax.

As NYMCIA head Katie Neer has rightly noted: “We do not tax Tylenol. We do not tax any other medication in New York.”

The medical cannabis excise tax is yet another unnecessary barrier to the life-changing medication that so many New Yorkers depend on. Fill out the form below to tell state lawmakers to eliminate the excise tax TODAY.