DISPENSARY PERMITS OK'D BY CITY P&Z

Following a public hearing on June 28, the city Planning and Zoning
Commission approved two conditional use permit applications for
medical marijuana dispensaries in Benson.

The conditional use approval is just the first step in a long process
that will need to go through the Arizona Department of Health Services.

"This is a competitive process where the state will approve one
application within a Community Health Analysis Area," said Michelle
Johnson, a technician for Benson's Planning and Zoning Commission.
"There are about 126 of these health analysis zones across the state,
with one medical marijuana dispensary for each zone."

One of the two conditional use applications submitted to Benson's P&Z
commission was by Adam Sheafe, a representative of the Nature Wellness
Center, with the second submission by Bryan Hill who represented the
Benson Herbal Center. If approved by the state, Nature Wellness will
be operating a dispensary at 310 S. Ocotillo Ave., while the Benson
Herbal Center is proposing a dispensary at 695 E. Fourth Street. The
state's initial application submission deadline was set for June 30,
but Gov. Jan Brewer has placed a hold on applications for medical
marijuana dispensaries and cultivation sites because of a number of
legal concerns.

Now that the state's application deadline has been extended, a third
conditional use permit for Benson has been submitted and will be heard
by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission on July 19 for possible
approval. The proposed dispensary's location is a former Family Dollar
Store located at 496 N. Ocotillo St. If approved, three different
applications from the City of Benson will be reviewed by the state.

Benson falls within a Community Health Analysis Area that extends
(roughly) from the Pima County line in the J-Six area on its
western-most boundary, north to the Graham County line, south to the
Benson city limit line and east to Dragoon Road.

"It represents a huge area," Johnson said. "This is an extremely
competitive process." Along with the applications from the City of
Benson, there is another application that the county P&Z commission
will be considering for approval, a site north of Dragoon Road, which
shares a health analysis area with Benson, Johnson said.

If that site's special use permit application is approved by the
county, the state could, for all intents and purposes, decide the
Dragoon Road location is the most suitable for a medical marijuana
dispensary. The state makes the final decision of which of the
different sites will be selected, looking at a list of stringent
criteria, with one dispensary in each of the 126 community health areas.

The county Planning and Zoning Commission is holding a public hearing
today at 4 p.m. at the Cochise County Board of Supervisors hearing
room, 1415 Melody Lane, Building G in Bisbee to consider four medical
marijuana special use application requests for the following purposes
and locations:

Medical marijuana dispensary cultivation and infusion facility, 6687
East Highway 90 in Sierra Vista. The application has been submitted by
RRB Enterprises, LLC.

Medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation facility at 86 East
Redwing Lane in Whetstone, located east of Highway 90. The applicant
is Lisa Landy.

Medical marijuana cultivation facility at 3516 West La Luna Drive in
Douglas. The applicant, Julia Patten, intends to install a greenhouse
for marijuana cultivation, which will be sold offsite.

Medical clinic and a medical marijuana dispensary and cultivation
facility located at 2941 Old Coyote Rd. in Cochise, north of Dragoon
Rd. The application has been submitted by Treatment and Health
Centers, LLC and is represented by Catherine Mead.

In November, voters approved Proposition 203, the Medical Marijuana
Act, which allows the use of medical marijuana in Arizona for people
with chronic medical and debilitating conditions. The Arizona
Department of Health Services has drafted rules surrounding the
implementation of Prop. 203. Under the law, physicians may prescribe
medical marijuana for patients with such conditions as cancer, HIV,
AIDS, hepatitis C, Crohn's disease, lateral sclerosis and glaucoma, to
name a few.