PHOENIX SUSPENDS TIME REQUIREMENT ON MARIJUANA PERMITS

Phoenix has suspended its 180-day requirement for holders of
medical-marijuana permits to seek state licenses.

The move is a result of the state lawsuit against the federal
government regarding clarification of Arizona's medical-marijuana law.

City officials anticipated that with the state scheduled to begin
issuing licenses this month, the three-month period was plenty of time
for permit winners to take action.

Every medical-marijuana site approved in Phoenix came with
stipulations or requirements that the permit holder seek a license. If
none was granted within 180 days, the permit would be revoked. The
city ordinance also gave applicants 180 days to seek building permits.

Larry Tom, a city planner who is assembling medical-marijuana
information, said days up to June 1 will be counted against the time
limit but the count now will be be suspended until the state lawsuit
is resolved.

The first permit holders received their permits March
17.

Tom noted that 87 applications for medical-marijuana operations came
into the city since Jan. 1. Of those, only about 20 have been
approved. The rest have been denied or withdrawn or the applicants
never followed through. Twenty-two still await permit hearings.

The state had planned to award one medical-marijuana business for each
community health-analysis area. The State Department of Health
Services created the areas, based on population, to enable department
officials to do a better job of analyzing health trends, such as
cancer clusters. Phoenix covers, in whole or in part, 19 such areas.