More than 700 patients applied for Arizona's medical marijuana program since the state health department began accepting applications last week, and about 80 percent of them were approved, according to statistics released Friday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Between the first day that the Arizona Department of Health Services began accepting applications on April 14 and Wednesday, 718 people applied to get medical marijuana cards. Of those, 579 were approved, the department said.
Those who weren't approved will have to reapply.
The department also released demographic information about the applicants. About 78 percent of them were men, and the largest age group, at 37 percent, was people 51 and older. The next largest age group, at 22 percent, was people between 41 and 50 years old.
Diseases reported included cancer, Hepatitis C, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS and Crohn's disease, and applications came in from across the state, with clusters in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas.
The application process is entirely online. Patients have to do about a half-hour of data entry with things like their age, address and medical condition. They then have to attach documents to their applications that include a photograph of themselves, a photo ID, and a signed doctor's "attestation" that the patient needs medical marijuana and will not give or sell it to anyone else.
Arizona voters narrowly approved medical marijuana in November, making the state the 15th in the country to pass such a measure.
Pot shops can begin turning in their applications to sell marijuana in Arizona in June, and the first patients will begin receiving their medical marijuana in late summer or early fall.
Patients approved for medical marijuana will be allowed to buy 2½ ounces of pot every two weeks or grow a limited number of plants themselves if they live at more than 25 miles from a dispensary.
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