EBT Cardholders Offered Discount on Medical Cannabis Cards in Arizona
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]W[/dropcap]elfare recipients reportedly get a discount at one medical cannabis consultation office in Arizona. Drivers traveling through Indian School Road near the Interstate 17 in Maryvale, Arizona were shocked to see a sign reading “Medical Card: $220 or $150 EBT.” The sign, however, only indicated that EBT cardholders could receive a discount on an Arizona medical cannabis card.
Food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), offer benefits that are distributed to recipients in the form of Electronic Benefit Transfers (EBT) cards.
Arizona locals initially assumed they were selling the medical cannabis cards for EBT cards, but the sign holder cleared things up for local media. “It’s not buying it with food stamps,” Joseph Macias, the man holding the sign, told ABC15. “It’s a discount; they don’t trade food stamps at all.”
The medical office that issues the medical cannabis cards confirmed that they do not accept EBT cards as payment for medical cannabis cards.
Snopes cleared up any confusion several years ago, maintaining that no states accept EBT payments for cannabis. And the same goes for medical cannabis cards.
SNAP covers meat, vegetables, infant formula and diabetic foods, and it sometimes even covers fast food items depending on what state you live in. But it doesn’t cover things like cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis.
There is a lot of confusion over EBT use and cannabis. Meanwhile, legislators in Massachusetts and Alabama are calling for bans on EBT use for cannabis purchases. Legislators claim that welfare recipients can use EBT cards to purchase cannabis. In California, cannabis can only be purchased with cash donations, which eliminates the possibility of using EBT cards in a dispensary.
The Arizona medical office that is offering the discount is definitely taking a different, more compassionate, approach to welfare recipients.
