Does your Illinois medical card expire within the next six months?

Don’t worry. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Illinois Department of Public Health is immediately implementing a temporary process change for patients and caregivers whose cards will be expiring within the next six months.

Patients will not be required to extend or renew cards through renewal application and payment.

Patients will receive new cards in the mail within the next few weeks, which will add an additional year to the card term length. If patients have already submitted a renewal application and payment, refunds are not allowed.

The Illinois Department of Public Health hopes this will alleviate some concerns during this crisis.

Please send any questions to: DPH.medicalcannabis@illinois.gov

If patients have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and are applying for a six-month terminal illness medical cannabis registry identification card, please select the available terminal illness application online or visit the IDPH website.

April sales of medical cannabis in Illinois reached $31,111,926.69.

For 2020, retail sales by licensed medical cannabis dispensaries has totaled $109,278,769.20.

Since November 2015, licensed medical cannabis dispensaries have sold a total of $620,577,371.67.

Retail sales of medical cannabis for April included $14,481,643.61 in dry flower and $16,630,283.08 in concentrates/infused-products.

Licensed medical cannabis dispensaries served 56,541 unique patients, who purchased 978,196 grams of dry cannabis.

The IDPH also announced this month the approval for 113,458 qualifying patients’ applications (including 644 persons under 18 years of age), since it began accepting applications for the Medical Cannabis Registry Program on September 2, 2014.

For 2020, wholesale sales by cultivation centers equaled $94,330,470.19.

Wholesale sales since November 2015 by cultivation centers has totaled $396,594,921.62.

Since the stay-at-home order, dispensaries are permitted to sell medical cannabis outside of their limited access area on their property or on a public walkway or curb adjacent to the dispensary.

Medical cannabis patients will be able to continue to utilize their designated caregiver to purchase medicine for them.

These rules do not apply to adult-use cannabis sales; those must still take place inside the limited access area. A complete list of the rules extended may be found here.

For a directory of dispensaries click here.