The state of Michigan has taken additional steps towards improving access to its medical marijuana program. Patients now have a number of online tools that they can use to register and get certification cards which permit them to access medical marijuana.
The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs in Michigan announced a few days ago that any patient who doesn’t have a caregiver can simply go online and apply for an identification card from the medical marijuana registry.
Such patients can also monitor the status of their online application by logging into a secure account created for them when they launch their application for the identification card.
The state also plans to make it possible for those patients who don’t have a caregiver to use the same online tool when it is time for them to renew their identification card for the medical marijuana program.
Previously, patients were expected to be present (in person) at an authorized office where cards could be applied for or renewed. Experience has shown that the old system was unnecessarily burdensome for particularly those patients who lived alone or whose condition made it hard for them to move from their homes.
It will also be possible for patients change their address information, ask for replacement cards or withdraw from the program. These features are still being added to the online tool.
Doctors have also been given an opportunity to register for a secure online account. The doctors who take up that offer will use that secure account to certify that their patients have been recommended to use medical marijuana. This will reduce the need for patients to get hard copy recommendation letters to use during the registration process for the medical cannabis program.
Michigan residents voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2008. Since then, the state has been tweaking its methods of administering the program so that patients get the care they need in a way that doesn’t risk the confidentiality of those patients or endanger the public.
The online app is the latest addition to the measures intended to deliver efficient services to qualifying patients. A quick scan of the information available at the website of the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs department shows that patients should typically wait for a maximum of five weeks for their online applications to be processed.
One can then call a given number in case they have waited for more than five weeks but haven’t received any feedback from the department.
Marijuana industry players like Phivida Holdings Inc. (CSE: VIDA) OTC: PHVAF) and Plus Products Inc. (CSE: PLUS) definitely applaud the measures being instituted to remove any inconveniences suffered by patients as they try to access medical marijuana.
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