"A lot of folks who applied at the very end of the year and were expecting they'd get a license within a day or two—it takes a couple weeks, for paperwork to be checked, to check their fingerprints, check they've got their documents in order and physically inspect their locations," says the marijuana program spokesperson Mark Pettinger. "There's one story in the cannabis trade industry that lamented the case for two-three dispensaries. When we went back and checked, they'd either submitted incompletely or at the last minute—so December 29 or 30, thinking they'd get a license on January 1."