Illinois medical marijuana card wait time

[Newgrower84]

You applied 10/26 and we're approved 1/7? I applied 10/25 and they just started processing mine today. Hoping it'll arrive soon for both of us.

I applied on October 18th called January 7th said it was in processing. I don't know if that means approved and sent to printers or working on it currently.
Timeline 10-18-2018 applied card charged same day.
January 7th - processing
No card yet

 

[Juke52]

Good news at the link below! The story includes a reference to this forum. Thanks Tom Schuba!

https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/kevin-debbie-keating-changes-to-medical-pot-program-aim-to-eliminate-months-long-wait-period/

 

[Myk63]

This waiting time is truly ridiculous. I had spinal surgery, and the same day I applied for my cannabis card, I also applied for a handicapped placard. The placard came 2 days ago. I get the good spots now, so I suppose that's a bright side. The bad thing is my extreme pain that isn't being helped! I wish they'd really get it together, but I work for the state. i know how they work...or don't work. The whole state is run like this currently. Ugh.

My neck fusion's last neuro post op visit would've been sooner than people are getting cards now.

 

[Jeff.C]

I applied on October 18th called January 7th said it was in processing. I don't know if that means approved and sent to printers or working on it currently.
Timeline 10-18-2018 applied card charged same day.
January 7th - processing
No card yet

I too applied on 10/18. Approved 1/7. So, this is day 87 and waiting patiently for my
card to be delivered. However, patients is quickly runny out. Illinois is a joke. It's no
wonder a family leaves Illinois every 10 minutes. If I didn't have kids and grandkids
here, I would move out of state as well. As a recent retiree, family is all that's keeping
me here.

 

[Bex9000]

applied 10/26
approved 1/7/19
hope its not a long wait to get my card printed and mailed

Same day as me! Applied online 10/26. C'mon little card! I wish I had the chance to call, but don't have the time during the week with my job.

 

[blntqueen]

You applied 10/26 and we're approved 1/7? I applied 10/25 and they just started processing mine today. Hoping it'll arrive soon for both of us.

yea to be honest i was surprised that i was already approved i was thinking by the end of this week i would be.. I have been following this blog for 3 months and it seems like they don't go all in order because some people who applied in september were getting approved at are time as early october. but i did apply online and maybe thats why mine was already done? ill let you all know when i actually get my card in the mail.

 

[dwnclr1987]

Just got off the phone with IDPH hoping to hear the word "approved" since the woman I was speaking to told me they started processing my app 1/10. She said, "No, it can take up to 30 days to process an application." So... I'm on day 82 already. Day 90 will be the 23rd, and they're saying if it takes up to 30 days to process that could then be Feb. 9th.

 

[cantthinkof1]

Nothing in informed delivery. I know it should be this week but it sucks balls. Adding another rx seizure med to my routine this week because I can't keep waiting for this shit

 

[cantthinkof1]

Just got off the phone with IDPH hoping to hear the word "approved" since the woman I was speaking to told me they started processing my app 1/10. She said, "No, it can take up to 30 days to process an application." So... I'm on day 82 already. Day 90 will be the 23rd, and they're saying if it takes up to 30 days to process that could then be Feb. 9th.

I don't see why it should take that long to process. You send a lot of documents with your app, they are the government and probably can access some databases to stalk you extensively, and it's just cannabis.

I am sorry. I hope you get it soon.

 

[dwnclr1987]

I don't see why it should take that long to process. You send a lot of documents with your app, they are the government and probably can access some databases to stalk you extensively, and it's just cannabis.

I am sorry. I hope you get it soon.

Thanks. I'm hoping that's just something they say and that it won't actually take that long. Weather shifts and winter are really hard for me, and I've been in pretty much non-stop pain since mid-September.

 

[Spatula]

No luck on day 94, i will call today

 

[Jukk]

Yesterday was day 90 for me and still no card. Tomorrow will be the actual 3 month mark though, since I applied on Oct. 16. Hopefully it will be here this week!
I'll be sure to post here when I get my card in hand.

I was also approved on the 7th. It sounds like there's a few of us here that are waiting on the same batch from printer.

No luck on day 94, i will call today

Let us know if you get any kind of information. Good luck and hopefully yours will be here soon too!

 

[Juke52]

Yesterday was day 90 for me and still no card. Tomorrow will be the actual 3 month mark though, since I applied on Oct. 16. Hopefully it will be here this week!
I'll be sure to post here when I get my card in hand.

I was also approved on the 7th. It sounds like there's a few of us here that are waiting on the same batch from printer.

It seems like the state is really holding the line on their made-up 90 day wait period. It looked like things were trending slightly faster last month with a few people reporting wait times slightly under 90 days, like 87 or 88. Now the pendulum is swinging in the other direction and wait times are getting longer again. I waited 95 days, and got my card a week ago.

But it does look like provisional access is coming in a couple of weeks or so, so anyone who submitted all the required paperwork after around Nov. 1 should be able to get access without the 90 day wait.

 

[Myk63]

It seems like the state is really holding the line on their made-up 90 day wait period. It looks like things were trending slightly faster last month with a few people reporting wait times slightly under 90 days, like 87 or 88. Now the pendulum is swinging in the other direction and wait times are getting longer again. I waited 95 days, and got my card a week ago.

But it does look like provisional access is coming in a couple of weeks or so, so anyone who submitted all the required paperwork after around Nov. 1 should be able to get access without the 90 day wait.

What gets me is they sped up for October-November with waits of 75-ish days. But they approved a very low number in November then seemed to completely stop (as far as online reports went). Then right back to 90-ish days for December. Now over 90 days for January.
Just think if they wouldn't have slacked off late November to stick with 90 days in December. Just think if they'd push out approvals like the 2999 they did in December with more days off than the 1126 they did in November. Most of the time they could actually abide by the original 30 days the law said if they would work to their ability rather than an arbitrary 90 days where they don't even look at an application until it's aged 60 days.

I wonder what's going to happen to cards after provisional access. Are they going to start using the extra 90 day provisional extension regularly because there's no more need to "rush" them out in 3 months?

 

[Spatula]

Yesterday was day 90 for me and still no card. Tomorrow will be the actual 3 month mark though, since I applied on Oct. 16. Hopefully it will be here this week!
I'll be sure to post here when I get my card in hand.

I was also approved on the 7th. It sounds like there's a few of us here that are waiting on the same batch from printer.


Let us know if you get any kind of information. Good luck and hopefully yours will be here soon too!

Tried to call 5 different times and didnt get through, got the msg that hangs up on you.

 

[LEEla]

Update. Called today to check and they said they “received” my application.... It was received November 1st.... They said they should get to mine in about 2 weeks.... also, the representive who I talked to on the phone said supposedly that when you call or email checking your application status, that it takes time away from them processing applications... whether or not that’s true I don’t know. I even asked if there is another way people can check their status on their applications... obviously the representative said no... he agreed when I said, “well that’s absolutely not sufficient or fair since it takes a very long time and patients want to make sure everything is going well...”

First of all. That’s they job to give your information on your application. Weather they like it, or not. They need to check with their company on how they can get more employees if there’s too many applications for them to handle, instead of making it seem like the consumer is the person at fault. They have a customer service number, so yea people are going to call especially when they already have to wait months to get their cards. It’s ridiculous to treat people like this. Makes me mad.

 

[TrailblazerTony]

Good news at the link below! The story includes a reference to this forum. Thanks Tom Schuba!

https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/kevin-debbie-keating-changes-to-medical-pot-program-aim-to-eliminate-months-long-wait-period/

Access for opioid patients and those seeking provisional coverage will open when MicroPact, a Virginia-based contractor, completes new software that will interact with the state’s existing cannabis monitoring systems, according to IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold. The new system should be up and running as early as Jan. 31, but MicroPact doesn’t have a strict “go-live” date, Arnold noted.

Opioid patients will need only obtain a doctor’s note verifying their condition before they can apply for a 90-day medical card through the Opioid Alternative Pilot Program, an offshoot of the state’s medical pot program. Those patients will then “be registered, either online by establishing an account, or at a dispensary, and have immediate access to medical cannabis,” Arnold said. After 90 days, a doctor can then renew a patient’s card.

The changes will almost certainly increase the medical cannabis program’s patient count, which has grown substantially since post-traumatic stress disorder was added as a qualifying condition in 2016. Of the 52,365 medical cannabis applications the IDPH has approved in more than four years, 22,452 were accepted in 2018. Thanks to Tom Schuba for this info.

 

[TrailblazerTony]

I don't see why it should take that long to process. You send a lot of documents with your app, they are the government and probably can access some databases to stalk you extensively, and it's just cannabis.

I am sorry. I hope you get it soon.

Sadly, The Answer to your Question is in what you wrote. It is the Government, That is WHY it takes this long.

 

[TrailblazerTony]

I'm still iffy on how much it helps. Sleep, OMG, yes. And they say sleep helps everything else (except my migraines, which may have been worse for a while but tomorrow makes a week since my last one).

I see people complaining about prices. It's the same price I was given on the street for an 8th. Slightly more for a 4th. Probably much better prices on 1/2 (actually the 1/2 I got was the price of a street 1/4). Quality is as good as I've seen, tasted or felt in recent years, far above anything back in my active stoner days.
I can't compare to other states, but I hear people from those states complaining just like I hear people from IL complaining. I think people just like to complain.

While doing the daily grind I was thinking how with legal weed everyone is worried about how it is grown and if it is safe. When it was illegal weed nobody cared if it was sprayed with paraquat or who's ass it was stuffed in to get it across the border.

It is a lot of Trial and Error, so I Have never gotten the same thing twice in 10 months of visits. And it is not a Magic Pill, so give it time and try Many Versions. It is not even as powerful as an Opiate, so keep in mind it can not cure every symptom all at once.

 

[Newgrower84]

What gets me is they sped up for October-November with waits of 75-ish days. But they approved a very low number in November then seemed to completely stop (as far as online reports went). Then right back to 90-ish days for December. Now over 90 days for January.
Just think if they wouldn't have slacked off late November to stick with 90 days in December. Just think if they'd push out approvals like the 2999 they did in December with more days off than the 1126 they did in November. Most of the time they could actually abide by the original 30 days the law said if they would work to their ability rather than an arbitrary 90 days where they don't even look at an application until it's aged 60 days.

I wonder what's going to happen to cards after provisional access. Are they going to start using the extra 90 day provisional extension regularly because there's no more need to "rush" them out in 3 months?

I like how u say "Rush them out in 90 days". Makes me laugh. I would kill for 30 day card wait like the form says when you file for your card.