ARIZONA BEGINS SETTING UP PROGRAM FOR MEDICAL POT

With unofficial election results showing that Arizona voters have
approved a medical-marijuana program, state health officials said
Monday that they will begin implementing the measure and expect the
drug to be in use by late summer 2011.

Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble said he
expects that by April, the agency will begin reviewing applications
from people who want to use medical marijuana or operate a
dispensary. The program should be fully functioning by later that
summer, when dispensaries have had time to grow the plants.

ADHS, the rulemaking body for Proposition 203, has two main duties:
set up an electronic database to track medical-marijuana users and
dispensaries, and draft standards and rules for the program.

The Arizona Medical Marijuana Act requires the department to complete
those duties by April, 120 days after official election results are
delivered Nov. 29.

But state and local governments have a lot to do before then,
designing and paying for a monitoring system and figuring out where
to allow the drug to be grown and sold.

There has not yet been an expressed effort to challenge Prop. 203.
But during the campaign, every sheriff and county attorney across the
state and several top state government officials came out against it.

"That should be a little worrisome, I would think," said Carolyn
Short, chairwoman of anti-Prop. 203 campaign Keep AZ Drug Free.

Getting the drug

Arizona would be the 15th state to legalize marijuana for medicinal
use, although the details of the programs vary widely. Humble said
his staff is evaluating how medical-marijuana programs in the 14
other states work and hopes to learn from other states' mistakes. The
state agency will hold public meetings and accept public input online
as it sets regulations.

Health-department officials expect it will cost $600,000 to $800,000
to set up the program, and they do not know how they will fund it.
The department's general-fund budget has decreased nearly 50 percent
since fiscal 2008, and there is no extra money allocated for this in
the department's budget, spokeswoman Laura Oxley has said.

Ongoing costs to manage the program would be covered by fees charged
to dispensaries and patients.

In Arizona, under the ballot measure, licensed physicians would be
able to recommend medical marijuana to patients with debilitating
medical conditions, which include cancer, glaucoma, HIV/ AIDS,
hepatitis C and Alzheimer's disease. Other conditions can be added to
the approved list by the state health department through a
public-petition process.

Doctors must certify in writing the patient's debilitating medical
condition after assessing the patient's medical history in "the
course of a physician-patient relationship."

Humble said the new regulations would define what such a relationship entails.

During the election campaign, one of the main points of dispute was
whether patients could receive marijuana for claiming "chronic pain."

According to Prop. 203, patients could qualify for medical marijuana
if they have "a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition
or its treatment that produces . . . severe and chronic pain."
Opponents of Prop. 203 have said this clause is a loophole
non-qualifying patients would abuse to access marijuana.

Humble said his staff would look into specifying prerequisites to
prove "chronic pain."

Once patients receive a doctor's recommendation, they could register
for ID cards with the department and then either receive up to 2 1/2
ounces of marijuana every 14 days from non-profit dispensaries or, if
they live at least 25 miles from a dispensary, cultivate up to 12
marijuana plants of their own.

There would be no more than 124 non-profit dispensaries permitted at
first, proportionate to the number of pharmacies in the state, with
at least one in each county, Humble said.

Zoning limits

Local jurisdictions have proposed three categories of dispensaries:
cultivating facilities, retail stores and infusion facilities such as
marijuana bakeries.

Cities and towns can regulate where the different types may locate
and each type could be subject to different zoning rules. Several
jurisdictions already have decided to allow retail stores in
commercial areas and cultivating facilities in industrial or
agricultural zones, said Ken Strobeck, executive director of the
League of Arizona Cities and Towns. Many also plan to place
additional restrictions on dispensaries, including limits on
environmental emissions, hours of operation and type of signs.

Prop. 203 prohibits dispensaries from locating within 500 feet of
existing schools, but this is the only distance limit on dispensary
locations in the ballot measure. Some local jurisdictions have
proposed additional distance requirements. For example, dispensaries
in some cities may have to locate at least 2,000 feet from other
dispensaries to prevent clusters, or they may be required to locate a
certain distance from churches, public parks, libraries, day-care
centers, group homes for people with disabilities and rehabilitation centers.

Some local officials have been concerned about the number of
potential growers within their jurisdictions, especially because
Prop. 203 does not specify whether the health department could
inspect home-grown plants.

In smaller cities, a handful of dispensaries would be enough to
prevent home-growers because no one would live more than 25 miles
from a dispensary and therefore would not be permitted by law to
grow. But the 25-mile requirement could pose a challenge to counties
with larger rural areas located farther away from dispensaries, Humble said.

Dispensing

The state health department expects to get far more than 124
applications for dispensaries, based on the interest expressed so far
among a network of professionals looking to cash in on the dispensary
business. Humble said a strict application-approval process is key to
ensuring a tightly regulated system.

The department currently is considering several options to screen
dispensary applications, such as accepting them on a first-come,
first-served basis or creating a lottery system and drawing random
applications. The ideal but most labor-intensive way to select
dispensaries would be to evaluate the quality of their business
models, security plans and inventory systems and then select the best
124 applications, Humble said.

Jason Medar, a prospective dispensary owner and member of Arizona
Patients Association, said he plans to create a dispensary that takes
a holistic approach to patient care - both to provide more services
and to help his dispensary application stand out. Medar plans to
offer massage therapy, yoga and growing classes for patients who
would grow their own plants.

The patients association is working with doctors who will begin
writing recommendations starting Dec. 1, Medar said.

Dispensary owners and patients also shoulder the responsibility of
creating a well-regulated and responsible program, said attorney
Jordan Rose, whose law firm has represented businesses and
non-profits that want to participate in the medical-marijuana program.

"So much of it is based on who imposes rules, but it's also on the
dispensaries to be responsible, have responsible people in place for
the medically inclined to shop," Rose said.