THREE APPLY TO BE FLORENCE'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROVIDER

Three different potential medical marijuana providers are seeking
conditional use permits to operate in Florence, and their applications
will receive an initial hearing before the Planning & Zoning
Commission at 6:30 p.m. June 2. The Town Council could hold additional
hearings and take final action on the requests on June 20.

Monarch Wellness Center LLC of Scottsdale has applied to locate a
cultivation facility and dispensary on 10 acres at the southwest
corner of Arizona Farms and Attaway roads. Great Western Developers
LLC and Manager Rocky Pahwa have applied to operate The Herbal Clinic
of Florence at 200 S. Main St., the doctor's office most recently
known as Hari Health Care.

Thomas and Julie Curtis have applied to operate the Florence Medical
Dispensary at 917 Pinal Parkway, just north of Florence Heights Drive
and across the street from Pinal County fleet maintenance.

Even if all three proposals obtain town approval, the state doesn't
have unlimited permits to grant. Most likely only one will actually
open for business.

If Monarch's application is approved, it plans to build a
2,000-square-foot dispensary and a 3,000 square-foot "fully-enclosed,
locked and secure" cultivation facility. The dispensary would be open
9 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, the application says.

Monarch's application continues, "The proposed facilities will be a
not-for-profit medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation site that
will serve as a model operation, maintaining the highest standards of
professionalism while operating in full compliance of the law.

"It is Monarch's goal to offer affordable, consistent and quality
medicine to state certified patients in an environment that is focused
on safety, privacy, convenience and comfort.

"The dispensary's interior environment and facilities will function
very similarly to a medical clinic and wellness center. The
cultivation facility will be a state of the art environment that will
allow for the production of the highest quality medicine."

Great Western Developers' plans for a dispensary at 200 S. Main St.
would apparently be in conflict with town code, which forbids medical
marijuana sites within 660 feet of a residential district, a church,
school and other "sensitive areas."

Pahwa acknowledged this in a letter to the town May 5, but asked the
town to accept the application while he considers either submitting a
text amendment application or finding another site.

His application says the medical director of The Herbal Clinic of
Florence will be Don W. Hill M.D., who is "uniquely qualified to be
assigned a medical marijuana distributorship license by the state."

The application says Hill was the principal investigator for an
experimental marijuana drug known as Sativex. Hill had a rare Schedule
1 DEA license from 2007 through 2010 to use the drug in a
well-regulated clinical trial for pain management for cancer patients
in the Casa Grande area, the application says.

Thomas and Julie Curtis of Florence are meanwhile seeking a permit to
build a 1,296-square-foot dispensary at 917 Pinal Parkway. According
to their application, the Florence Medical Dispensary would be open 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. In the beginning it would
employ four people, not including the owners. Once the facility
expands and begins cultivation, it would employ 10-20 people, the
application says.