State agency shifts focus to rising medical marijuana demand

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority is temporarily closing its customer service center to focus on the high volume of medical marijuana applications.

Agency officials say the number of applications received per week rose from 1,200 in September to around 5,000 in February.

The agency’s policy requires a response to emails, requests and applications within 14 calendar days.

KFOR-TV reports that the authority has reassigned the call center’s three to five employees from working the phones to processing applications full-time. The shift allows them to respond to 300-500 more applications daily.

The decision briefly eliminates a widely used customer service. The call center answered around 1,000 medical marijuana inquiries every week before closing in early February.

Oklahoma has issued over 65,000 medical marijuana cards since voters approved medicinal marijuana last June.