Starting Thursday, the medical use of marijuana in Missouri is legal. The measure approved by voters to allow patients with cancer, PTSD and other ailments to use marijuana takes effect Thursday, but it will be months before that can actually happen.

The state has until June 4th of next year to make applications available for patients to talk to a physician. Then it will be another 30 days before they start accepting those applications and another 30 days after that before they start issuing patient cards.

Marijuana and Missouri. The two take a huge step forward Wednesday when the state's new medical marijuana law goes into effect.

Here's the deal.

If you have cancer, HIV, epilepsy or many other disorders, you'll be able to legally access the drug.

But that doesn't mean you'll be getting legal marijuana Wednesday.

The law takes effect Wednesday, kicking off a list of deadlines.

No later than June 4th, the state health department needs to make applications available, so you have something you can take to a doctor and get signed.

Thirty days after that, so no later than July 4th, they have to start accepting applications.

 Gov. Mike Parson’s administration has not decided whether thousands of Missouri welfare recipients will lose their benefits if they use medical marijuana.

In response to a series of questions put to administration officials this week, the Department of Social Services, which administers the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, said the question remains under review.

“The Department of Social Services is currently studying the issue and will make a decision on how to proceed at the appropriate time,” spokeswoman Rebecca Woelfel told the Post-Dispatch.

Officials, for example, also have not made decisions on whether to bar medical marijuana users from certain state jobs.

Right now Missourians who want to get their medical marijuana card would need to need to choose between using the drug or keeping their gun. Keeping both means you run the risk of being arrested because it’s illegal under federal gun laws for any marijuana user to possess a firearm.

Two weeks ago, state voters overwhelming passed Amendment 2, also known as New Approach Missouri, which allows doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients with serious illnesses.

Spokesperson Jack Cardetti said the new marijuana law had the foresight to protect second amendment rights at the state level.

The clock is ticking on medical marijuana in Missouri, but there’s still a lot people don’t know. Here’s more about the grey areas and what will have to be figured out quickly.

Constitutional amendments go into effect on Dec. 6, but it won’t be legal by then. That’s just when the clock starts ticking on deadlines to accept applications for medical cards and dispensaries.

However, there are things that are not spelled out that a local attorney is closely watching.

Many Kansas City metro residents cross the state line between Missouri and Kansas multiple times a day. Now that Missouri has voted to legalize medical marijuana, what will those with legal prescriptions need to know when going into Kansas? 

"We are a metro area with hundreds of thousands of people crossing the state line, so it is something we will have to address," Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said Thursday. 

Voters in Missouri spoke loudly at the polls on Tuesday. Medical marijuana will become legal on Dec. 6, and residents must have a prescription to use it. 

Under the current law, any Missouri resident possessing medical marijuana could be arrested after crossing into Kansas, where medical marijuana is not legal, according to Howe.

More than two decades after California first made medical marjiuana legal in the United States, Missouri voters will have their say on whether the policy is right for the Show-Me State.

Here's a roundup of things to know ahead of this historic vote.

One of the medical marijuana initiatives on the ballot for voters is Proposition C. Supporters say the ordinance is long overdue and will provide people suffering from medical conditions with easy and affordable access to medical marijuana.

They say Prop C provides the best situation on all fronts. Mark Habbas, a spokesman for Missourians for Patient Care, is asking voters to pass medical marijuana laws. He says if people study the facts, they'll see that Proposition C is the most effective way to do so.

“We set it up to provide the best patient access and we set it up to have the lowest tax because insurance doesn't cover it,” Habbas said. To be clear: Prop C would not legalize the recreational use of marijuana. There are no recreational initiatives on the ballot.

With Wednesday being the last day to register to vote, here is a look at the three initiatives for medical cannabis.  The potential legalization of medical marijuana in Missouri comes in the form of three options on ballots in November.  

Voters now have less than a month to educate themselves on the differences between the three measures. Missouri could become the 31st state to allow medical marijuana. 

For Missouri Medical Marijuana measures, it was a fierce summer in the courtroom. Dr. Brad Bradshaw who backs Amendment 3, sued to have the other two initiatives thrown off the ballot, challenging the validity of their petition signatures. 

Four weeks from now, voters in Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah will all be deciding measures that would lift legal restrictions on marijuana — but all in different ways.

And Colorado, too, has another marijuana-related issue on the ballot.