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State struggles to finish medical marijuana applications

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A state department in charge of licensing medical marijuana businesses might not meet its own deadline.

 

People with medical marijuana businesses had until mid-February to get their applications into the state. If they did, they got a grace period and could stay open until June 15th – the thinking was the state would be able to get them their licenses by that time.

 

But now the state says it might not get through all those applications in time – more than 300 of them.

 

Andrew Brisbo is the director of the Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation.

 

“We’re focusing our energy really on processing as many of these applications as we can by that deadline.”

“It’s just gonna result in more questions and requesting additional information so for us to push things forward faster I don’t think is gonna achieve the desired result there.”

“We emphasized from the beginning that early submission and complete submission would be critical for timely licensure.”

 

Brisbo says Michigan could see its first licensed medical marijuana business up and running within the next month to month-and-a-half.

 

There are more than 300 pending applications that are supposed to be dealt with by the June deadline.