Laura Nelson, M.D.. Chief Medical Officer, Arizona Department of Health Services Will Humble, Director, Arizona Department of Health ServicesThank you for your interest in the effective implementation of the AZ Medical Marijuana Act. We realize that many Arizona physicians may not yet feel comfortable with or fully informed about medicinal marijuana. It is likely that [...]
Last week I wrote about how Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency (ARRA) instruments detected trace levels of Iodine-131 in AZ air from the troubled nuclear power plant in Japan. This week testing by ARRA and the AZ Dept. of Agriculture found trace levels of I-131 in the milk samples that they routinely monitor. The levels are of no [...]
Awhile back the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released preliminary guidance to state Medicaid agencies (AHCCCS) regarding a new federal funding opportunity to coordinate and integrate primary, acute, behavioral health, and long term supports for folks with chronic illnesses. The guidance encouraged state Medicaid agencies to work with partners to provide technical assistance for [...]
Lots of people know that our Office of Vital Records is the statewide data hub for birth certificates, but we’re also in charge of death certificates. The program we use for death certificates is called the “Vital Statistics Information Management System”. The system used to be supported by a contractor in Utah, but no more. [...]
Each year, almost 300,000 people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the United States. Survival rates from these events tend to be extremely low. However, research has shown that hands-only bystander CPR can triple survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The problem is that bystanders that witness a cardiac arrest only attempt CPR about 26% of the [...]
In a previous blog post, I talked about how all of us are exposed to natural radiation on a daily basis. It mostly comes from space (called cosmic rays) as well as natural radioactive materials found in the soil, water and air. Some people were wondering what cosmic rays are. Cosmic rays are actually energetically charged particles [...]
One of our objectives as we developed the final set of Rules for Medical Marijuana was to ensure reliable access to medication in rural Arizona. That's why we built in some incentives to encourage folks to apply for one of the rural CHAAs. First, we made sure that inventory could be transferred between dispensaries (and [...]
Many of the comments that we received at the public hearings were about how we'll evaluate and award the dispensary licenses. Many of the questions were about zoning, so here's a brief summary of how the zoning part will work: The final rules outline a 2-step process whereby applicants enter into a competitive screening in each Community Health Analysis Area [...]
We’ve published our final Rules for managing the upcoming Medical Marijuana Program in Arizona. We released the final rules and a series of fact sheets on our website first-thing this morning. The fact sheets are designed to help prospective qualified patients, designated caregivers, dispensary applicants and physicians understand the final set of rules (including dispensary application [...]
We’re finished making our policy decisions regarding the final medical marijuana rules, and our rules team will be spending Friday and probably part of the weekend crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s on the final medical marijuana rules. We’ll be releasing them on our website first-thing on Monday morning. We’ll also be having a [...]
