Missouri officials announced that state government is running ahead of schedule for one part of the new medical marijuana system.

Patients and caregivers who want medical marijuana ID cards will be able to file online applications beginning June 28, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced Friday morning.

That's six days ahead of the July 4 deadline imposed by Amendment 2.

Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for DHSS, said officials will begin processing card applications when they begin coming in on June 28, a week earlier than previously expected. The amendment requires the state to accept or deny a card application within 30 days.

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The online application system will be posted to medicalmarijuana.mo.gov. Sample application forms are online now, allowing would-be cardholders to preview the application and learn about the documents they will need to apply.

What you need for a card

The doctor's note needed for a medical cannabis card, known as a "physician certification," will be accepted "as an attachment to a patient’s application rather than directly from a physician," state officials said in a news release.

That means patients should download a Physician Certification Form from the state medical marijuana website and have their physicians fill it out. The forms must be signed by the doctor no earlier than 30 days before filing the card application.

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Registration for the cards costs $25 per patient or caregiver. Home cultivation registry costs $100. Missouri allows patients or caregivers to grow up to six flowering plants, six nonflowering plants and six clones at a time, using an "enclosed, locked" facility. Additional rules allow for two patients to share a home-growing facility and for a patient to serve as caregiver for another patient.

A separate licensing process is going on for medical marijuana businesses like dispensaries, cultivation facilities and testing labs. Companies that want licences to do business in those areas can start applying Aug. 3. The state must hand out licenses no later than Dec. 31, meaning that dispensaries will open in early 2020.

Some people tied to the industry think that will happen around springtime of next year.

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