The AZ Attorney General issued an Opinion and a media release this afternoon about the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. The Opinion states, in part, that the voter approved Act is pre-empted by Federal Law – specifically the part that allows the cultivation, selling or distribution of marijuana. It references 2 recent court cases that states [...]
The first week of August is World Breastfeeding Week and it has been for 20 years. This year’s theme is The Road to Lifelong Health Begins with Breastfeeding. Those long-term benefits apply to both mothers and babies. When babies are fed human milk, they are more likely to avoid obesity, less likely to die from [...]
Thanks for your patience as we developed our continuity plan for leadership in our Division of Behavioral Health. I know you’re all anxious to hear the transition plan for after Dr. Nelson leaves on August 24. Fortunately, we are very lucky to have so many strong leaders here at the agency, including a really great [...]
Our behavioral health RFP Core Team (Bob Sorce, Victoria Navarra, Teresita Oaks, and Chris Leavitt) and our entire cast of characters have been doing a full court press for the last 7 months to put together the Scope of Work that we’ll use when we go out for bid for the massive behavioral health services [...]
Next Tuesday (August 7) is "Selection Tuesday" for our medical marijuana dispensary applicants. By the end of the day, we’ll have whittled the initial pool of 486 medical marijuana dispensary applications down to 99. We won’t be allocating the full allotment of 126 Registration Certificates on Tuesday because 27 of our Community Health Analysis Areas [...]
Ok.. here's a quiz. One of the lists below represents the most commonly ordered foods at the Olympic Village by the athletes in London. The other list is the list of most commonly purchased foods in the US by normal consumers (by dollar value). Can you match the list to the right cohort? List [...]
We’re celebrating the 1st birthday of the our Home Baked and Confectionary Goods program this week. So far, we’ve signed up more than 1,400 participants. Over the past year, we’ve finalized our rules for the program and produced an educational video. The participants are making a variety of home baked goods ranging from gluten-free baked [...]
Whooping Cough is making headlines again – with more than 18,000 cases in the U.S. and 600 cases so far this year in AZ. You might wonder why we continue to have lots of whooping cough cases in the US and AZ when the other vaccine preventable diseases are real rare (e.g. measles, mumps etc.). [...]
Last year HB 2036, which relates to abortions in AZ, was passed and signed. There are a host of changes that the new law makes- and many of the provisions kick in at different times. The first things that we’re responsible for (beginning August 2nd) include providing an informed consent form for unemancipated minors that are seeking [...]
Lots of risk factors contribute to health disparities… and many of the risk factors are called "social determinants of health." A couple of months ago we (with our community partners), launched the Social Determinants of Health educational series to boost professional development and program planning so Arizona’s public health team can better address health equity [...]
