Posts Tagged ‘medical marijuana dispensaries’

Dispensary Drawing Procedures Report Published

August 31st, 2012

We carefully planned our processes for randomly selecting medical marijuana registration certificates in competitive districts to make sure the process was fair and transparent.  Part of our planning included contracting with Henry & Horne, LLP to independently observe the entire process.  The contract included a requirement to develop a final report documenting their observations.  The final report, entitled Independent Accountants’ Report on Applying Agreed-upon Procedures was submitted this week and has been posted on our dispensary website. 

All of the written materials related to the August 7 drawings are now posted and available on our website, including the Random Selection Agenda; Random Selection Eligible Application Report; Random Selection Protocol; Random Selection Protocol Selection Video; Dispensary Certificate Allocation Results; and the new Henry & Horne CPAs Report on Applying Agreed-Upon Drawing Procedures. 

Have a safe Labor Day weekend.

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Dispensary Medical Direction is a Go

May 8th, 2012

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.

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Flag Drops for Dispensary Applications

April 11th, 2012

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.

 

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Dispensary Application News

June 1st, 2011

A prospective dispensary applicant came to our offices this morning in an effort to submit an application for a dispensary registration certificate.   We declined to accept the application because, as I wrote on Friday, we won’t be accepting dispensary registration certificate applications until the outcome of legal action filed last week.

There were several members of the media present when the prospective applicant arrived.  One of the reporters asked me a question about how the decision was made to halt the acceptance of dispensary registration certificate applications.  I want to clarify my answer to that question.  The decision to halt the acceptance of dispensary registration certificate applications was collaborative.  It was the result of multiple discussions that followed the May 2 letter from the U.S. Attorney for Arizona – including conversations involving myself, the Governor, legal counsel and staff.  It’s most accurate to say that the Governor and I reached the decision to suspend the acceptance of dispensary applications in consultation and coordination, as is typical for an issue of this significance.

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