Proposition 203, legalizing medical marijuana approved by Arizona voters last November, is now creating new business growth. The Department of Health Services controls every step proposition 203 takes as cannabis becomes Arizona's sixth C of economy.
Dennis Burke, Arizona's US attorney, warned the Department of Health services director, Will Humble, proposition 203 may allow medical use of marijuana in Arizona. It does not mean the federal government won't seek to prosecute drug traffickers in federal court. It remains to be seen if this will reduce the number of applications for a dispensary license. The application deadline is June 1st. Medical marijuana dispensaries should be open for business by October.
Arizona has approved the opening of 124 dispensaries for medical marijuana throughout the state. The dispensaries are to be nondescript with only a small sign; however, there has been a lot of public outrage at proposed dispensary sites. The public is as concerned as Humble that legal marijuana will be abused as a recreational drug.
Phoenix is working to prevent the marijuana law from being abused. The city has a limit of 2,000 square feet for a marijuana facility. The city has issued three different marijuana use permits: growing, sales or infusion permits. Any medical marijuana use facility will have to be at least one mile from other facilities. Phoenix has also restricted the proximity those facilities are to schools, homes, bars and churches.
The latest business to pop up from proposition 203 is a school in Scottsdale. Green Horizons University will offer classes on how to cultivate marijuana for medical use. The school will also sell medical marijuana cultivation tools and offer legal, medical and auditing advice to dispensary owners.
Will Cannabis succeed as a sixth C of Arizona's economy? As Humble stated, "We're in charge of substance abuse for the state and here we are charged with implementing a medical marijuana law, which if we get it wrong will end up becoming a recreational marijuana law which would then undermine our mission which is to try and avoid substance abuse." Implementing proposition 203 is proving to be very frustrating. The Department of Health Services officials are realizing what a fine line it is to balance medical marijuana use over recreational abuse of the drug.
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Comments: 20
If events in other states that have gone down the medical marijuana road are any guide to what follows in Arizona, it seems unlikely.
Currently - and in Arizona - the (Federal) Justice Dept. is flexing it's muscle, promising to go after versions of the new cannabis idea that appear to be 'trafficking', under the guise of 'medicine'.
I believe that using the sympathies & compassion of voters to ok medical uses ... but then in fact exploiting the program to serve recreational users, will in the end prove very costly to the marijuana legalization advocacy communities.
Nobody likes to look in the mirror and see ... Sucker!
I only disagree with MJ's inclusion in illegal drugs because its competitor (alcohol) is more dangerous on many different fronts and has been legal since the end of prohibition. Essentially, prohibition created the demand and developed the industry that its repeal eventually allowed to flourish. It turned out precisely against the teatotallers plans and intentions. MJ could be another source of sintax revenue, but, instead, we spend billions attempting to eradicate it.
But that's another issue. I think you are dead on it to discuss that this medical program, once exploited, is going to leave people with the feeling they've been suckered into legalization. That's not the right way to go about it.
Do you garden, farm? I love growing stuff. Producing our own food ... and other plant material ... is awesome!
Herbs are in general are both bad & tough weeds. "Weed" is a Weed among weeds. ;)
The cultural hangup with going legal, is that pot doesn't for the most part "replace" alcohol. Folks use both ... and they exacerbate each other.
Medically, pharmacologically, physiologically, it is very common that drugs 'interact' and often 'enhance' each other. This is a real challenge for doctors medicating patients for more than one problem at a time.
We see the 'reality' of pot viz alcohol, on the tabloid pages every day. These people start "partying", and it's not a case of choosing less-harmful substances to have fun with.
No, it becomes a matter of combining substances to have the maximum possible intensity of fun.
So unfortunately, not only will mj not mitigate the harmfulness of alcohol, it actually will/does "fuel" it to even worse levels/extents.
===
Of course, society-wise, the deal with legalization is the pot is part of major international agreements, which all modern nations have signed. This is why pot was never legal in Amsterdam, Stockholm - or anywhere else that it has become popular and penalties have been reduced to insignificance.
These international agreements give every indication of being deeply & solidly rooted, very stable over a long period, and unlikely to change. Thus, our own Fed will know that they couldn't go legal even if it looked like the smart thing for the US to do ... not without performing major surgery on International Law.
I comfort myself, that I was obviously not the only person to 'space reality out' ... just long enough to let the genie escape the bottle.
But in several states where the backlash is clearly underway in earnest, our lawmakers do appear to be trying hard to hang onto the original compassionate intent of the voters.
Tho, Montana tried seriously to just repeal the whole thing.
And of course, many take this as a ha-ha.
Many are cool with getting in a car & driving, when it is a major challenge getting around the living room & doing anything!
Do they have something that can 'sniff' pot?
In some places, "intoxication" or "impairment" isn't really 'hooked' to what causes it.
... Yet, indeed, we have cases of medical marijuana users demanding to be allowed to be messed up at work ... and yes, currently in the news, a case pushing for the "right" to drive on their "medicine".
In reality, as per above, there is & has been a push to educate folks that even what you doctor prescribes ('for real') can get ya in trouble on the road.
Yeah well ... on AZCentral, from April 14th:
Arizona's medical-marijuana law takes effect
"Arizona's medical-marijuana law takes effect Thursday, but patients already have been lining up to pay hundreds of dollars in some cases for pot recommendations from clinics that opened in recent weeks for just that purpose.
Health officials are concerned that so-called certification mills could quickly turn a medical program into a recreational one, but they have limited recourse."
...
"DHS Director Will Humble said the rules were written to regulate the industry as tightly as possible without running afoul of the law voters passed in November as Proposition 203. But he said it will only take a handful of physicians writing casual recommendations to explode the program.
"What I'm afraid of is there will be enough of them that just check the boxes but don't really do it (a thorough exam). Or do a cursory drive-by . . . collect the money and move on to the next patient," Humble said."
Looks & sounds like the standard train-wreck, from this article.