Last week a Superior Court judge ordered Maricopa County to process the zoning paperwork that has been submitted by the applicant for the Sun City CHAA. The Maricopa County Attorney asked for a Stay of the decision while he appealed the case to the Court of Appeals. This morning, the Superior Court judge denied that request for a Stay. There’s still an appeal pathway for the Maricopa County Attorney if he asks for a Stay of the decision from the Appellate court while the pre-emption arguments are made at the Appellate level. For our part- we did not take a position at today’s hearing… and we will simply continue to wait for the applicant in the Sun City CHAA to turn in its zoning paperwork, which would complete the application. At that point we would process it the same as the other 98.
By the way- AZ now has 3 operating dispensaries, one in Glendale and one in Tucson. Another dispensary in Cochise County opened today. Because of the 3 operating dispensaries and provision in the voter approved language that only people that live more than 25 miles away from a dispensary are authorized to cultivate, more than 70% of Arizonans now live in areas where self-cultivation will no longer be permitted. However, we’re grandfathering the cultivation rights for current card-holders until they renew their card or move into an area that’s within 25 miles of a dispensary.
Debilitating Conditions Hearing
May 24th, 2012Friday afternoon we’re holding a public comment session about whether or not to add four new debilitating conditions to the medical marijuana program. The comments should center on scientific studies done on how marijuana affects Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Migraines, Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. We’re looking for peer-reviewed, published studies that show the benefit or the danger of marijuana specific to these four conditions.
For almost a month, folks have been commenting on line about the petitions to add conditions. More than 80 people have provided input so far. At the hearing on Friday, speakers will have two minutes to address one of the conditions. (The hearing will be broken into two segments – the first is to hear about the PTSD studies and runs from 1 until 2:30. The second half from 2:30 until 4 is for the other three.) We’ll open the doors at 12:55.
We’re also streaming the audio from the session on our website for people that can’t make it to Health Services (we’re having technical difficulties with the video- but that might work too by then). Anybody can use the online comment tool to provide input to the final decision. There’ll be a room at ADHS to listen to the live stream of comments in our 1740 W. Adams, Phoenix, AZ 85007 building in case the meeting room is over capacity. The time will be the same as the public comment session – 12:55 – 4 p.m.
Changing anything the voters have created comes with a heavy responsibility – one we take seriously. We’ll listen to the folks who come to ADHS and read the written comments before we make any decisions about adding new conditions. The decisions will likely come in July.
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