Photo by clarissa.stark.

A revised set of rules governing the District’s nascent medical marijuana program would make operating a dispensary or cultivation center more expensive and give more weight to Advisory Neighborhood Commission opinions in deciding where in the city they will be located.

The rules, which were published in the D.C. Register on April 14, establish a $3,000 renewal fee for licenses to operate any of the five dispensaries and 10 cultivation centers envisioned for the city’s medical marijuana program. Old versions of the rules published last year did not lay out any costs for re-upping on a license. The fee for having an application rejected also jumps significantly under the new rules, going from $200 to $2,500, and a medical marijuana certification provider permit increased to $300 from $100. Under the new rules, a manager’s license needs to be renewed every year instead of biannually as under the old rules, meaning that the city takes in the $150 application fee twice as often.

The increases are sure to rankle advocates and budding entrepreneurs in what’s already set to be an expensive undertaking — application costs for cultivation centers and dispensaries run $5,000 a pop, while annual fees stand at $5,000 for cultivation centers and $10,000 for dispensaries. Moreover, the 95-plant limit for cultivation centers has made some advocates worry that tight supply will mean higher costs for qualifying patients.

The new rules also give more weight to the opinions of ANCs in granting licenses for cultivation centers and dispensaries. Applications are judged by a five-person panel — up from four people — that consider and score a number of factors. Under the old rules, applications were judged on a 200-point scale; the new rules add 50 points for ANC comments on the impact of a dispensary or cultivation center within its boundaries. In essence, make nice with ANC commissioners if you want to get into the medical marijuana business. (Cultivation centers and dispensaries have been envisioned in locations ranging from Takoma and New York Avenue NE to Adams Morgan and even Tenleytown.)

This new set of rules represents another step in what has been a slow, bureaucratic march towards implementing a program that was first approved by D.C. voters in 1998. Mayor Adrian Fenty published an initial set of rules last August, followed by an amended version in November. Since then, the medical marijuana program fell into something of a bureaucratic black hole, with entrepreneurs putting leases on hold and re-tooling plans for cultivation centers and dispensaries. By comparison, Arizona, which only approved a medical marijuana program last November, started accepting patient applications last week (on the same day D.C. published its third version of the program’s rules, no less) and will take in dispensary applications in June.

These rules will be in effect for the next 120 days, and will be published in final form thereafter. Letters of intent for cultivation centers and dispensaries are being accepted between today and June 17, after which applications will be considered. But even if things proceed smoothly from that point on, many say that it’s doubtful that medical marijuana will make its way to patients in 2011.