Tuesday Utah residents will be able to apply for a special card that allows them to legally possess hemp oil for medical treatment purposes. The law that sets up the program went into effect this month.
Utah residents who are being treated for intractable epilepsy will now be able to legally possess canabidiol, also known as hemp oil extract, as medication. Janice Houston is the Director of the State Office of Vital Records and Statistics. She says the $400 application fee will go toward everything from computer software programming costs to the certified federal records paper on which the cards will be printed.
“Part of that cost was to provide information through the Department of Public Safety’s web portal for all of their law enforcement officers,” says Houston.
She says they anticipate approximately 100 parents or guardians to apply for the card for their children based on information from the Department of Health.
“The adults that would qualify for this, we still don’t have a good idea of numbers so it’ll be interesting to see how many of those we end up processing," says Houston, "and if there’s a huge surge for that as well and if that’s the case then I guess we’ll handle it best we can.”
Houston says the department is not concerned about fraud related to the free downloadable form over the internet since a neurologist’s certification is also required. She says applications are also available by regular mail, email or over-the-phone requests or in person and the state Vital Records office.