Arizona starts regulating medical marijuana!
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (PNN) - June 12, 2012 - Soon after health officials announced they would dole out Arizona’s first licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries, Ryan Hurley, co-chairman of the medical marijuana practice at the Rose Law Group here, noticed a common trait among some of the people most eager to enlist his services: They were already in the business in other states.
Arizona has one of the country’s strictest set of requirements governing the sale of medical marijuana - and according to Hurley, they were all looking to tap into its market because of that.
Medical marijuana programs exist in a gray area. They are legal in 17 states and the District of Columbia, but illegal under federal law, where selling and consuming marijuana, even if for therapeutic purposes, is still considered a crime. It is a risky undertaking:
In Kalifornia, where rules governing the business are particularly lax, medical marijuana ventures have been targets of raids by the Amerikan Gestapo.
In Arizona, it is a costly and cumbersome enterprise.
Dispensaries have to abide by zoning regulations that change from one municipality to the next. Applicants must offer detailed plans on how to secure, store and track the marijuana they hope to sell. They have to offer educational materials - which is standard practice - and hire a medical director to supervise the operation, the only requirement of its kind in the country.
For prospective dispensary operators like Douglas McCrady, a disabled veteran who applied to open two dispensaries in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, it is “a legitimate way to keep the competition in check”.
