Applications for medical marijuana licenses became available Friday. The process got off to a slower start than some expected.
Outside the state office were multiple signs directing people where to go. There were police officers for crowd control and a maze of velvet ropes for an expected line – kind of like you’d see to get on a ride at Disney World.
But it was all for naught. About two hours into the morning, the first applicants arrived in person. A few more trickled in, but there was no need for crowd control.
Andrew Brisbo is with the state department in charge of medical marijuana license. He said the department has had trouble predicting how many people would eventually apply.
“We definitely wanted to over prepare, versus under prepare.”
He says it’s a relief to reach this point.
06 “Well frankly it was exciting cause it’s a year’s worth of hard work and watching it actually start operating and function correctly.”
He says several employees, including himself, stayed at work overnight to make sure the online system was working properly.
“We wanted to make sure people were here, sort of babysitting it, making sure that it was functioning and able to address any problems on the fly if they arose. But the system worked exactly as planned, so most people were able to go home, but I was too excited to sleep.”
Things went a bit differently online. The application went live at midnight. Between 12:01am and 8:00am, 29 people logged into the system. Half of them submitted at least some of the application documents.