Create an account on the Department of Health’s Licensing Portal: If you do not already have an account on the DOH’s Licensing Portal, you must create one to complete your renewal application
Ask your healthcare practitioner to complete a medical marijuana certification for you: Ask your physician to complete a Practitioner Written Certification Form. or a Practitioner Written Certification Form for Use With Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis, if applicable. Ask for the original copy of the form after completion
Gather other required items: Apart from a medical marijuana certification, you also need proof of residency, a passport-style photograph, a government-issued ID, and payment for the renewal application
Submit the application: Complete the rest of the application and upload the required items to your account on the Licensing Portal
Wait for approval: It may take up to 35 days for your medical marijuana card to become available
Yes. In March 2023, the state’s Department of Health launched the Rhode Island Cannabis Licensing Portal to facilitate medical marijuana card renewal online. New qualifying cannabis patients can also apply for their cards via this portal. With the introduction of this portal, patients no longer need to complete and mail paper documents to the RIDOH for medical marijuana card renewal.
Since the Rhode Island Cannabis Licensing Portal is relatively new, qualifying patients and caregivers must create new accounts in the portal in order to renew their medical marijuana cards online. The RIDOH Cannabis Licencing Portal User Guide provides patients with instructions on how to use the portal, including the medical marijuana card renewal process. Patients applying for card renewal must upload the following documents on the portal:
Patients can submit their applications online after filling out the necessary information and uploading the required documents. Once approved, the RIDOH will mail their medical marijuana cards to them. Caregivers and authorized purchasers can also renew their Rhode Island medical marijuana registration online. However, the patients under their care must provide the caregivers' and authorized purchasers' names and email addresses in their profiles on the RIDOH Cannabis Licensing Portal. Once a patient provides this information, their caregiver and/or authorized purchaser will receive an email containing a link allowing them to renew their registration cards online.
A Rhode Island medical marijuana card expires one year after the date it was issued. Hence, registered cannabis patients and caregivers in the state must renew their registrations annually.
Yes. A licensed physician must assess a medical marijuana patient in Rhode Island and certify that they could benefit from the state's medical marijuana program based on their medical conditions. After the assessment, the physician must complete a Practitioner Written Certification Form for the patient who intends to renew their medical marijuana card. The physician must be must any of the following:
There is no Rhode Island medical marijuana card renewal fee for patients, caregivers, or authorized purchasers. The state's Department of Health only charges them a $10 fee if they need to replace stolen or lost cards or if they want to change any information on their medical marijuana cards.
After completing the relevant medical marijuana card renewal forms, patients are required to mail their paperwork to the RIDOH at:
Rhode Island Department of Health
Licensing Unit - Medical Marijuana Licensing
3, Capitol Hill Room 105A
Providence, RI 02908-5097
Patients, authorized purchases, and caregivers are now encouraged to submit their medical marijuana card renewal requests online via the state's Cannabis Portal.
Yes, Rhode Island has medical cannabis reciprocity with every state in the United States and accepts out-of-state medical marijuana cards. However, out-of-state cannabis patients must present valid medical marijuana cards/documents in order to purchase medical cannabis at Rhode Island-licensed medical cannabis dispensaries, also known as compassion centers. Additionally, they must have valid government-issued identification cards. A licensed compassion center in Rhode Island may refuse to sell medical cannabis to an out-of-state patient who cannot provide a valid form of ID even if their medical marijuana card/document is valid.