How to Get a Michigan Medical Marijuana Card

Michigan voters created the medical marijuana program in 2008, ten years before adult use. Today the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) runs the patient registry and licenses the businesses that sell to patients.

To register, you need three things: Michigan residency, a qualifying condition and a certification from a Michigan physician. Adults 18 and older can apply on their own. Patients under 18 can register too, with extra steps and a parent or guardian who serves as their caregiver.

Why some adults register even though adult use is legal

Adult-use cannabis in Michigan is for people 21 and older. A registry card changes a few things under state law:

• Access before 21. Registered patients, including those who are 18 to 20, buy from licensed medical provisioning centers. Adult-use stores sell only to adults 21 and older.
• Lower tax. Medical sales to registered patients skip Michigan’s 10% excise tax; only the 6% sales tax applies. Adult-use purchases carry both.
• Different limits. A patient may buy up to 2.5 ounces a day and 10 ounces a month. Medical edibles may hold up to 50 mg of THC per dose, against 10 mg for adult-use edibles.
• Home grow. A patient with no caregiver growing for them may keep up to 12 plants in an enclosed, locked facility.
• Protection. A valid registry card shown with a photo ID is what protects a patient or caregiver from arrest under the medical law.

A card does not allow smoking cannabis in a public place, and it does not stop a private employer from disciplining or firing an employee for marijuana use.

The CRA lists these qualifying conditions, grouped here for easier reading:

• Cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and ALS
• Crohn’s disease, colitis, inflammatory bowel disease and ulcerative colitis
• Alzheimer’s agitation, Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s Disease and autism
• Nail patella, PTSD and OCD
• Arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, spinal cord injury, chronic pain and cerebral palsy

A chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition also qualifies when it, or its treatment, produces cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe and chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures (including epilepsy) or severe and persistent muscle spasms (including multiple sclerosis).

Whether your situation fits is a question for your physician. The current list is on the CRA’s qualifying conditions page.

Your certification must come from a physician licensed in Michigan: an MD, a DO or a physician licensed through the Expedited Medical Compact. The CRA’s application instructions call for a medical evaluation by an active Michigan physician within the last six months.

The law protects physicians who certify within a bona fide physician-patient relationship, after a full assessment of the patient’s medical history. Expect a real medical evaluation, not a form you complete on your own.

If a certifying physician later tells the program in writing that a patient no longer has the condition, the program lets the patient know that the card is no longer valid.

A Michigan patient card is valid for two years. You can submit a renewal starting 90 days before it expires, with the same application and the same $40 fee. A caregiver’s card expires on the same date as the patient’s.

An application or a physician form does not count as a temporary card, so renew early enough that your card never lapses. Our article on renewing a Michigan medical card walks through it.

A registered caregiver assists a patient with the medical use of cannabis. To serve as one, a person must be at least 21, consent to a criminal background check and have no disqualifying convictions. Each patient may have only one caregiver, a caregiver may assist no more than five patients, and the caregiver receives a separate card for each patient.

For a patient under 18, the application needs certifications from two different physicians, and a parent or legal guardian who is 21 or older must serve as the minor’s caregiver. The minor packet also asks for a Declaration of Person Responsible, proof of parentage or guardianship, and proof of the parent’s or guardian’s Michigan residency.

Michigan honors medical cards from other states. A visiting patient with a valid, unexpired card from their home state and a photo ID may buy at a licensed medical provisioning center, within Michigan’s medical purchase limits, and those purchases are taxed as medical sales.

Only Michigan residents can get a Michigan card. And no card is a permit to travel: the federal rule of April 2026 is aimed at licensed medical businesses and does not say that patients may carry medical marijuana across state lines. Michigan’s law does not protect cannabis taken out of the state either.

Many of our New Buffalo visitors drive in from Indiana and Illinois. Residents of either state cannot get a Michigan card, since the program is for Michigan residents only.

• Indiana has no legal medical or adult-use marijuana as of October 2026, so there is no Indiana card to bring. Adults 21 and older can shop Michigan’s adult-use stores with a valid ID. Read our Indiana guide.
• Illinois runs its own medical program for Illinois residents, and Michigan honors valid out-of-state cards at licensed medical provisioning centers. Read our Illinois guide.

Whatever card you carry, cannabis bought in Michigan stays in Michigan.