I'm not going to go out of my way to defend the IDPH, but I do think the level of criticism they receive in this thread is overstated. And I'm not talking about the 90-day approval time, which I've previously posted that I think is ridiculous. But other than that -- even under a cannabis-hostile prior governor -- the department seems to handle the program relatively efficiently. Case in point: you don't hear about people getting denied very often. Say what you will about the IDPH, at least they are giving people access to the medicine they want (albeit too slowly).
I get that people have legitimate issues with the Illinois program, and its far from perfect. But a little perspective is needed. Yes, Illinois is years behind California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Washington, etc. But we're years ahead of our Midwestern brethren: Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota (really, only Michigan is ahead of us right now). Hell, Indiana just legalized (non-intoxicating) CBD this year, when we in Illinois have been able to buy CBD for years on the shelves at Whole Foods and GNC. We're probably going to be the 2nd legal state in the Midwest, and, in theory, we could still beat Michigan to recreational retail since they won't roll that out until 2020. All things considered, I think Illinois deserves a passing grade on cannabis politics....
To be fair, the bill requires the IDPH to "implement" rules for the new law by December 1, but doesn't explicitly say that provision access itself must start by that date. Indeed, before provisional access can start, the dispensaries need to be trained how to use the IDPH website/database to identify valid provisional access patients. I don't think it's realistic to think that provisional access will be live until 1/1 at the earliest, but I'd love to be proven wrong.