[420 Girl]

A year into the state's medical marijuana law, health officials can't keep up with the demand.

Because of a rising backlog of about 3,000 applications, those who wish to use marijuana medically or grow it for others must wait three months for registry cards, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health.

"We're (now) getting a thousand applications a week," said James McCurtis, department spokesman. "It's going to take some time to get through all applications, even with new help."

As of April 16, the department said it had issued 13,239 permits for use of marijuana and 5,460 permits for caregivers to grow it. The program launched in April 2009.

But marijuana advocates say this delay has caused problems for many applicants statewide whom police have arrested for possessing marijuana.

Under state law, the state health department is obligated to issue registry cards on approved applications within 20 days. But a provision allows the applicant to use a copy of the submitted application to serve as valid registry identification after 20 days.

Greg Francisco, executive director of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said police are unjustly arresting applicants because they won't accept the application copy as a legitimate substitute for a registry card.

"It's been a major problem for a long time," Francisco said. "Police are saying: 'We have no way of knowing if that person got a denial letter,' and they'll go ahead and make an arrest and let the court work it out."

Francisco said although a judge often will throw out the charges in court, the arrest still can be a harrowing process.

"They still have the distress, the cost and being dragged through the criminal justice system," he said. "These people are suffering actual harm."

McCurtis said the department is trying to address the backlog by adding two temporary workers to assist the three full-time employees who process applications. It expects to add three more temporary workers later this year, he said.

McCurtis acknowledged the department underestimated the demand for the medical marijuana permit.

"It started out with a hundred or so applications. We had no idea of how many applications we were going to get," McCurtis said. "We didn't want to hire employees and have them sit around twiddling their thumbs."

McCurtis said the pace of application submissions picked up significantly in November. The program, he said, is designed to be self-funded by a $100 application fee.

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