Medical marijuana patients in Florida waiting for their identification cards are in for more bad news.

State challenged over vendor for medical marijuana cards

Medical marijuana office has a backlog of applications

Patients are waiting anywhere from 35 to 90 days

The state's Department of Health has received an administrative challenge from a company that was not selected to manufacture the cards.

The department awarded the bid to Veritec Solutions LLC on Tuesday, but received the challenge from Automated Health Systems a day later.

The challenge means that the department will continue issuing cards, much to the frustration of patients, caregivers and legislators.

Christian Bax, who is the executive director of the state's Office of Medical Marijuana Use, said earlier this week before the Senate's Health Policy committee that 20,000 patients have received their cards, which is less than half of the 46,952 currently in the registry.

Waits for cards according to patients range anywhere from 35 to 90 days.