About 7,000 people are about to become card-carrying members of the medical marijuana community with official Arkansas registration cards in the mail to patients.
That along with all 32 approved dispensaries cleared for takeoff are the surest signs yet that buds will be blooming in the spring, about 30 months after voters approved legal sales of the drug.
“Now that the cultivation facilities and dispensaries have been licensed and licenses have been awarded, we thought it was appropriate to start issuing the cards now,” said Connie Melton, the woman overseeing the Dept. of Health staff printing and sending off the cards. “We would suggest that recipients of cards wait until the end of the month to allow enough time for the postal service to deliver your card before calling and indicating you didn't receive your card.”
Patients who have shown patience all this time will get a card that features a drivers license photo, identifying information and prescription details.
After more than a few starts and stops, the growers and sellers will be ready to meet those customers’ needs.
“This timing is matching up perfectly,” said Scott Hardin, spokesperson for the state Alcohol Beverage Control Board, which oversees the program. “We have the Department of Health issuing cards. We have cultivators growing. We have one cultivator who is growing down in Cotton Plant with plenty of plants and product hopefully to move out the door around April.”
Hardin expects the number of patients to swell as the build-up grows over the next seven-plus weeks.
“What you're going to see is probably a very limited number open in April and as we move into May, June, July, August you're going to see the industry start to take off in this state,” Hardin said. “From there I think what you're going to see, much like you saw with the cultivators, it's going to be a race to see which company can be first.”
Meaning the handful of people at the Department of Health will be busy printing cards and sealing envelopes.
“We've had a number of calls over the months: when are the cards coming when are the cards coming,” said Melton.
Expiration dates will depend on what the doctor prescribed and entered on the patient’s certification form. That's part of the reason the state held off on sending out cards until it was clear there would be product available. They didn’t want cards to expire a short time after they were issued. People who signed up a while back will still get the full length of their prescription.