The new Washington state database that’s supposed to provide benefits to medical marijuana users as they get folded into the recreational system wasn’t ready to launch as Friday’s deadline loomed.
David Johnson, spokesman for the Department of Health, said an IT glitch is keeping the database offline. Officials are hopeful it’ll be running sometime Friday and they’re “burning the midnight oil to get it fixed.
In the meantime, patients are expected to pay full price at retail recreational stores; medical dispensaries must close by Friday.
When voters legalized weed with Initiative 502 in November 2012, they sealed medical marijuana’s fate. It was untaxed and unregulated, so the state merged it with the recreational system.
Although patients will be encouraged to shop at retail stores, they can enter themselves into a database that will provide a number of benefits, including a waiver of sales tax. Patients also will be allowed to possess more, as well as grow and buy different products with higher amounts of THC.
But without the database, none of the benefits are available. [Read more at the Seattle Times]
