The state will start an online application system for medical marijuana patients in mid-November, pledging to alleviate a substantial backlog in the 15-year program.

Health Department officials told lawmakers at a briefing Thursday that the new electronic process being tested will “greatly decrease the delays” between the time patients apply and actually receive the cards. Currently, the DOH does not allow patients to use medical cannabis until they receive the cards.

The joint hearing at the state Capitol was called by the House Committee on Health and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health to discuss the new medical marijuana dispensary law that will allow pot to be sold legally by licensed dispensaries starting July 15.

The existing paper-based process has led to significant delays for patients who regularly wait as long as two to three months to receive their registration cards, according to local doctors.

“We have cancer patients who are suffering needlessly,” said Dr. Clifton Otto, an Oahu physician who certifies fewer than 100 medical marijuana patients a year. “They’re waiting until their registration cards arrive, which is completely unnecessary. Cannabis actually has the potential to be lifesaving for cancer patients if it’s started soon enough. There’s absolutely no reason why they should wait one day.”

Lawmakers questioned Health Department officials, who took over the program from the Department of Public Safety on Jan. 1, as to why they aren’t willing to issue temporary cards as the previous administrator did so that patients can get their medicines immediately.

“The bottom line is, this was the current practice in the Department of Public Safety. Why is that not possible now if it was possible in another department of state government? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around that,” said state Sen. Roz Baker (D, South Maui-West Maui). “Rather than helping patients, you are putting in another barrier that wasn’t there. … So how do we fix this?”

Peter Whiticar, chief of the Health Department’s STD/AIDS Prevention Branch, which administers the medical marijuana patient registry, tried to reason with lawmakers that temporary cards could “very easily be forged” and put patients at risk.

The Health Department receives about 1,000 applications per month, which will take them about a month to work through partly because of staffing issues and the failure of applicants to complete forms correctly.

“We’re trying to work that down with overtime, and we’re hoping to get it down to less than 500 in one month,” he said. “That means cards should be going out in two weeks if they’re correctly completing them.”

However, legislators weren’t completely satisfied with the department’s fix.

“You’re singling out medical cannabis. This has nothing to do with law enforcement,” said state Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe-Iroquois Point). “Nowhere does it say we want to be an impediment or obstacle for a patient to get their medicine. With temporary registrations there was not the delay that we have now.”

State Rep. Della Au Belatti (D, Makiki-Tantalus-Papakolea) warned health officials that if the new online system doesn’t work as planned, “we will make legislation to require you to allow for temporary registrations.”

The DOH said it is creating online video instructions for applicants and will cut out the need for doctors to print and mail hard-copy applications, which must be sent back to physicians for their signatures before being distributed to patients. The system also will pre-fill information for previous applicants and will have an electronic payment option. With electronic signatures the department will be able to send cards directly to patients.

“These are steps we believe will speed up the system and hopefully increase accuracy of the applications. We know there’s been a lot of pressure to get cards out,” Whiticar said. “We realize there are patients with debilitating conditions. Our approach is to create a system where they do get the cards quickly — a lot faster than license renewal from the city and county and preapproval from security at the airport. We tried to make it as error-proof as possible.”