Members and higher rank forum members can give you a free smerti. With the introduction of the merit system, higher ranks apart from jnr members well given smerit which they can give out to deserving post.
Jr members that have received enough sMerit to be able to redistribute it can send merit. Same goes for any rank within the forum including Newbies. Sending merit is not limited to rank at all.
However, the majority of sMerit is sent by merit sources, and these are usually higher ranked members which are fairly established.