By Julie Johnson | Santa Rosa Press-Democrat

California’s new recreational cannabis marketplace is reviving a little-known document created about 15 years ago to give medicinal pot users something to show law enforcement: a state-issued medical marijuana identification card.

Marijuana’s legalization for all adults 21 and older was effective Jan. 1, and is creating a new demand for the IDs because cardholders don’t have to pay sales or use taxes at dispensaries — which can run between 7 and 10 percent plus the state’s 3 percent sales tax.

The challenge is getting one.

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County health departments run the state program, and in Sonoma County, the waitlist for an appointment to apply for a card is months out. The next available appointment is in June, health department spokesman Scott Alonso said Monday.

“We’re seeing a tremendous increase in the amount of calls asking for appointments,” Alonso said. “We’re booked.”

Based on a San Francisco medical marijuana user registry program, the laminated state identification card never truly gained traction among medical marijuana users since it was created in 2004. At its peak in the fiscal year ending June 2010, only about 12,700 people had acquired one in a state with about 37.5 million people. Today, the number of cardholders has declined by 70 percent to less than 4,000 cardholders.

A medical marijuana user or a qualified patient caregiver can apply for cards.

Over the last decade, criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana were eliminated or greatly reduced, and the need for documentation other a doctor’s recommendation declined, said Dale Gieringer, state coordinator of California NORML.

Read the full story at The Cannifornian.