Medical Marijuana Dispensary of Phoenix AZ

We’ll wrap up our first week of accepting medical marijuana dispensary Registration Certificate applications today. We’ve received about 40 applications so far this week- and our team has been doing an excellent job of reviewing the applications for “Administrative Completeness” this week- so much so that we don’t even have a backlog (yet).  

Any applications that are “Administratively Incomplete” (in other words, if they’re missing something) are being returned to the applicants so they can correct whatever is wrong.  In June, we’ll be checking for “Substantive Completeness” (which is a more thorough, quality review), and the applicants will have another chance to make corrections.  We expect to award all of the Registration Certificates on August 7.  If there’s only 1 qualified applicant in a Community Health Analysis Area- that applicant will be awarded a Certificate.  We’ll be holding a random drawing on August 7 to award Certificates in the CHAAs with more than 1 qualified applicant. 

Prospective applicants can check out our Registration Certificate Application Checklist, Instructions, and the official Application on our Medical Marijuana Dispensary webpage.  We’re refreshing our dispensary application page each weekday around the close of business to show how many applications we’ve received by Community Health Analysis Area.  Applicants have until next Friday (May 25) to finish and turn in their paperwork.

Today marks the start of the 2-week window for applying for a medical marijuana dispensary Registration Certificate in Arizona.  Prospective applicants can check out our Registration Certificate Application Checklist, Instructions, and the official Application on our Medical Marijuana Dispensary webpage.  In the first two hours, seven people had dropped off applications.

We’ll start reviewing applications as they come in- and we’ll stop taking applications at the close of business on May 25.  We’ll have 30 working days to review the applications- and folks will have 20 working days to submit any documents or information that were missing during our review of the application.  We expect to award all of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Registration Certificates on August 7.  If there’s only 1 qualified applicant in a Community Health Analysis Area- that applicant will be awarded a Registration Certificate.  We’ll be holding a random drawing on August 7 to award Registration Certificates in the CHAAs with more than 1 qualified applicant.

We’ll refresh our dispensary application page every weekday around the close of business to show how many applications we’ve received by Community Health Analysis Area.

One of the outstanding legal uncertainties regarding our implementation of AZ Medical Marijuana Act has been the Compassion First v. Brewer  lawsuit that challenged our authority to require future dispensaries to have a Medical Director.  We’ve always thought dispensary medical  direction was a key component to making sure that future dispensaries act in the best interest of patients and prevent recreational diversion.   After a judge’s ruling today, it looks like we’ll be OK.

Today a Maricopa Superior Court judge denied the Plaintiffs’ “Motion for Leave” to Amend their previous Complaint (which the court invalidated some of our dispensary selection criteria).  The Compassion First were attempting to re-open the case to challenge our requirement that dispensaries have a medical director. 

In his opinion (that largely tracks our argument), the judge denied their Motion, finding that the Plaintiffs failed to provide an adequate basis for declining to bring the medical director challenge in their initial complaint and that we (and the public) would be unduly prejudiced if the Court were to grant their Motion.  Of course, the Compassion First plaintiffs could always appeal- but (for now) the upshot is that we can require future dispensaries to have medical direction.

The voter approved language in the AZ Medical Marijuana Act directs us to periodically accept and evaluate petitions to add new debilitating medical conditions.  We’ve made it through the first phase of considering whether to add 4 new debilitating conditions… 1) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; 2) Generalized Anxiety Disorder; 3) Migraines; and 4) Depression.  You’ll be able to give us your thoughts about these four conditions at a public hearing next month (May 25^th from 1 – 4 p.m. at our State Lab).  You can read the information we already have about these four starting next week.

If we decide to add PTSD or any other debilitating conditions, we want to make sure we’re on solid medical ground.  I’m heading down to a conference in Tucson next weekend where physicians can get Continuing Medical Education credits for learning about medical cannabis.

The tumblers have clicked, and the race to apply for a dispensary is on.  Our revised rules for regulating Medical Marijuana were filed and became official today- and we’ll be accepting applications for Medical Marijuana Dispensary Registration Certificates from May 14 through May 25.

The unofficial rules incorporate the changes that were required by a recent Superior Court Ruling.  The judge ordered us: 1) to strike several of the selection criteria we had been planning to use for competitive areas of the state (areas where there will be more than 1 applicant per Community Health Analysis Area); and 2) to implement the law-  which is what we’re doing.

You can check out our Registration Certificate Application Checklist, Registration Certificate Application Instructions, and the official Registration Certificate Application on our Medical Marijuana Dispensary webpage.  Please don’t try to apply early- the first day we’ll actually accept applications will be May 14.   Starting May 14th, every day or so, we’ll refresh our dispensary application page to show how many applications we’ve received by Community Health Analysis Area (CHAA).

We’ll start reviewing applications as they come in (starting on May 14) and we’ll stop taking applications at the close of business (5 p.m.) on May 25.  We’ll have 30 working days to review the applications- and applicants will have 20 working days to submit any documents or information that were missing during our review of the application.  We expect to award Medical Marijuana Dispensary Registration Certificates on August 7.  If there’s only 1 qualified applicant in a CHAA, that applicant will be awarded a Registration Certificate.  We’ll be holding a random drawing in early August to award Registration Certificates in CHAAs with more than 1 qualified applicant.

Please visit our Medical Marijuana website if you have any further questions.  The materials that you’ll need to apply are all posted on-line- including the Application Checklist, Application Instructions, and the official Medical Marijuana Dispensary Registration Certificate Application.

One of the missing ingredients in medical marijuana has been peer-reviewed science- but there is some out there. Studies are happening across the country to see how marijuana impacts and interacts with other drugs.  One small-scale study done by UC San Francisco recently suggests using marijuana with opiates allowed some patients to reduce the amount of opiates needed to manage their pain.  This was a small study done with only 21 patients – so it indicates more research needs to be done.  The paper was published this month in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

Qualifying patients in the Arizona registry can receive information about studies like this through the program – when you sign up you can check a box to find out about the studies or we also post information on our website.

Cara Christ, MD and her team put together a dynamite new PowerPoint presentation on the role of AZ physicians under AZ’s Medical Marijuana Act.  The goal of the presentation is to provide a resource for physicians to be better informed about their role under the Act- and to learn about the checks and balances that we included in the system to ensure that the program keeps its “medical” character.

Believe it or not, it’s been almost a year since we started issuing the first medical marijuana cards for qualifying patients and designated caregivers.  This week marks the beginning of the first renewal period for the folks that applied for cards at the start of the program.  Our medical marijuana webpage has instructions and the link to renew cards. There’s also a fact sheet to tell folks what they need to know about renewing cards (and what happens if they don’t renew). 

Some key points to remember: 

• Qualifying patients must submit a new current photograph, patient attestation form and physician certification form. 
• The physician certification form must be dated within 90 calendar days of the application submittal.
• The application fees for renewal are identical to the application fees for a new application.
• Folks can begin the renewal process 90 days prior to the cards expiration date. 

Folks need to make sure they use the renewal application and not the new application when you are renew your card.   The renewal page will be updated on Thursday – you’ll be able to start renewing late that day or in the evening.

As you know from earlier blog posts a judge ruled in a state case that had challenged our dispensary applicant selection criteria.  The judge’s decision basically struck down several of the selection criteria we had been planning to use to for competitive areas of the state (areas where there will be more than 1 applicant per Community Health Analysis Area.

Our teams are busy dotting the Is and crossing the Ts right now on an express rule package that would remove the dispensary selection criteria struck down (AZ residency, child support, previous bankruptcies etc.) and to set new dates to accept dispensary applications.  Our rule changes will focus solely on making adjustments to comply with the judge’s decision and to set a new timeline for accepting dispensary applications.  

Our team is making good progress on the Rule package, and we expect to be finished this month (February).  I’ll keep you posted here, and I’ll let you know when the rule package is filed- including a link to the final set of rules.  We’re still on track to be able to accept dispensary applications in April.  We’d then have  about 45 days to review and award dispensary certificates- so we could potentially award up to 125 dispensary certificates by mid- to late-June. If someone is pretty much ready to go at that point, we could see medical marijuana dispensaries operating in July or August.

Right now, it looks like a qualified “yes”.  As you know from earlier blog posts a the judge has ruled in a state case that had challenged our dispensary applicant selection criteria.  We’ve been reviewing our options- and decided yesterday not to appeal  the case- which puts us back on track to licensing dispensaries under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.  

Our teams are busy dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s right now on an express rule package that would remove the dispensary selection criteria that was struck down last week (AZ residency, child support, previous bankruptcies etc.) and to set new dates to accept dispensary applications.  Our goal is to accept applications this April.  We’d then have 45 days to review and award dispensary licenses- so we could potentially have awarded up to 125 dispensary licenses by mid-June. If someone is pretty much ready to go at that point, we could see medical marijuana dispensaries operating in July or August.  

It’s been awhile since we talked about dispensaries and the certificate process.  The place to start your refresher course is by reading our 53 Frequently Asked Questions summary sheet and our dispensary webpage.  In the meantime, there are several things that won’t change and are still outlined in rule.  Folks will need to have a business plan, security information, staff information, medical director and a plan to distribute information to patients, plus a letter from the locality saying the address is in compliance with local zoning rules. So while we’re busy tying up loose ends with the rules and the FAQs, I imagine prospective dispensary owners will be busy too. 

One of the key provisions we settled on was to use zones to spread the dispensaries throughout the state.  There were a few reasons for this – one to keep them from clustering in urban areas, another was to make sure that qualifying patients in the more rural areas of the state had access to a dispensary.  Since we started issuing cards to qualifying patients and designated caregivers, we’ve been mapping where they live by zone.  That information is available in a monthly report on our website.