Illinois health officials say about 2,500 residents have applied for medical marijuana cards, even as the four-year pilot program remains stalled.
Department of Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold says 1,600 of those applicants have received approval letters.
She could not say where the applicants live.
A series of legal challenges over cultivation centers are still playing out in several areas of the state.
That means that some patients who are entitled to apply for medical cannabis cards are waiting.
Kim Locke of Mattoon tells the newspaper that she's held off applying for a card for her 7-year-old daughter Alyssa, who suffers from severe epileptic seizures.
