The Colorado Department of Public Health has been inundated with applications for Medical Marijuana ID cards. In fact they are getting up to 1,000 applications DAILY! Effective April 1, 2010 there are some changes taking place. They REALLY want to receive new applications via mail. In fact if you do hand deliver your application it MUST be in a SEALED envelope, and will NOT be processed with the mail that arrives that day. (in other words it won't speed up the process if you hand deliver it). They REALLY want it in an envelope! And NO they do not have envelopes for you. The next sentence is directly from the horses mouth... If it is delivered without an envelope it can be "handed back to the applicant or SHREDDED!" YIKES!
OK. OK. We understand. Mail it. Get a receipt for mailing it - such as certified mail, or registered mail, or fedex signature required etc. (because they are overwhelmed and MAY lose it - Plus you need that proof of mailing in your possession along with your application to be "legal" ).
Your license, or denial letter may take 6 months to arrive. Although they are receiving approximately $90,000 daily in revenue, they apparently haven't hired anyone to help process the applications. Below is the notice from the Dept. of Health.
Medical Marijuana Registry Procedures for Drop-off Applications to
Change
DENVER -- The Medical Marijuana Registry at the Colorado Department
of Public Health and Environment is making changes in processing
applications at its Vital Records Office at 4300 Cherry Creek Drive
South in Denver. Effective April 1, the walk-up window at the Vital
Records Office will accept medical marijuana applications only in sealed
envelopes and will not provide receipts or review applications for
completeness at the time they are dropped off.
The changes are necessary due to the explosive growth in the number
of medical marijuana applications during the past six months. The number
of medical marijuana registry applications increased from approximately
270 per workday in August 2009 to approximately 1,000 per workday in
February 2010. Most of these applications continue to be received by
mail. This has led to a significant backlog, with increasing lag times
between the date of application and the date when a registration card
actually reaches the applicant. The turnaround time for applications now
is approaching six months.
Currently, walk-in applicants for the medical marijuana registry have
their applications reviewed for completeness by Vital Records staff. The result is that
walk-in applicants are having their applications reviewed ahead of mail-in applications that
continue to flow into the Vital Records office each day. The change in
walk-in application processing will permit staff to focus on reducing
the backlog of applications being received by mail.
"The new processing procedures are the best means we have available
for serving all medical marijuana registry applicants," said Bob
O'Doherty, director of the Center for Health and Environmental
Information and Statistics at the Colorado Department of Public Health
and Environment.
The department was granted additional spending authority from the
state Legislature for this fiscal year and has added temporary staff to
help process the backlog of applications. Currently the department is
requesting spending authority for fiscal year 2010-11 to add permanent
staff to process the large volume of medical marijuana applications that
continue to add to the backlog. If approved by the Legislature, the new
staff could be added beginning in July.
Effective April 1, the Medical Marijuana Registry will implement the
following procedures at the Vital Records service window at 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South:
1. Only sealed envelopes will be accepted. Documents that are not in a
sealed envelope will be handed back to the applicant or shredded.
Envelopes are not available on-site. If you need an envelope, please
purchase one prior to arriving.
2. Receipts will not be available at the service window. If you need a
receipt to provide proof of mailing to the Registry, please mail the envelope via certified
or registered mail (or similar method) so that you receive a proof of delivery receipt from the
Post Office. Applicants are strongly encouraged to mail their application packets to
the department at CDPHE Vital Records, 4300 Cherry Creek Dr. S., Denver, CO 80246.
3. Questions should be directed to the Medical Marijuana Registry
information phone number, 303-692-2184, or to the Medical Marijuana Registry information
e-mail address, medical.marijuana@state.co.us. Staff will not be available at the Vital
Records service window to address questions.
4. Packets received at the window will be processed along with the
mail received for that date. Dropping off an application does NOT speed the delivery of the
registration card.
5. Copying services are not available on-site. If you need a copy of
the materials, please make these prior to arriving.
6. Notary services are not available on-site. If you need a signature
notarized, please do so prior to arriving.
