We estimate the energy cost associated with two pancake vortices colliding in
a layered superconductor. It is argued that this energy sets the plastics
energy scale and is the analogue of the crossing energy for vortices in the
continuum case. The starting point of the calculation is the Lawrence-Doniach
version of the Ginzburg-Landau free energy for type-II superconductors. The
magnetic fields considered are along the c-direction and assumed to be
sufficiently high that the lowest Landau level approximation is valid. For
Bi-2212, where it is know that layering is very important, the results are
radically different from what would have been obtained using a
three-dimensional anisotropic continuum model. We then use the plastic energy
for Bi-2212 to successfully explain recent results from Hellerqvist {\em et
al.}\ on its longitudinal resistance.Comment: 5 Pages Revtex, 4 uuencoded postscript figure
