FLOOD OF MEDICAL-MARIJUANA APPLICATIONS FORCES CHANGE

Inundated with medical-marijuana patient applications, Colorado's
health department has changed one way it handles the flood of paperwork.

Starting April 1, health department workers will no longer review
applications submitted at the department's walk-up window to make sure
they are complete before accepting them. In a news release, the health
department said that practice unfairly gave walk-up applications
priority and contributed to a backlog of mailed-in
applications.

The department has been receiving about 1,000 applications per
workday, nearly quadruple the number it was receiving per day over the
summer, according to the release.

The lag between when an application is received and when a license is
issued has now stretched to six months. The department is awaiting
legislative approval of funding to add temporary workers to help with
the backlog.