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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- In an unanimous vote Wednesday the Colorado State Board of Health cut the medical marijuana registration fee by more than 50 percent.

The health agency re-evaluates the cost of a license every year based on the number of participants in the program, a price that has now been lowered three times since the Medical Marijuana Registry first started.

A decade ago the medical marijuana fee was $140. That was reduced to $110, then $90 and now $35.

Mike Conaghan is one of the thousands of people in the state currently on the Medical Marijuana Registry, a database of patients that's currently on the decline.

"On a scale of 1-10 it used to be an 8 and now probably a 3," Conaghan said.

According to Communication Director for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Mark Salley, medical marijuana registration cards peaked in June 2011 at approximately 128,000.

But by September of 2011 that number had dropped to 102,592, a difference of about 26,000 people.

So what's behind the dramatic decrease?

Salley said, "For every application the medical marijuana registry gets they have to have a physician notification and have one of the eight medical conditions."

A medical patient who wants to remain anonymous said some people are taking advantage of the system.

"It's not that hard to know someone who has access to a dispensary. So, I think a lot of people are being sent to a dispensary and buying third party."

No matter what the reason, come January 2012 getting a medical marijuana registration card will cost less than half of what it does today.