'MARIJUANA CLUBS' TEST LIMITS OF EMBATTLED ARIZONA MEDICAL POT LAW

You could soon have a marijuana club down the block or around the corner.

An entrepreneur in the state's nascent medical
marijuana industry has found what he believes is
a loophole in the law that restricts the
distribution of the drug to just 125 specially
licensed dispensaries. Allan Sobol already has
opened his first club in north Phoenix and has
plans with his business partners to expand
elsewhere. But the exception Sobol has found
means more than the possibility of these clubs
showing up in every strip mall. It also gets
around the fact that health officials are
refusing to even accept applications for those
who want to operate one of those limited number
of heavily regulated dispensaries.

The move has not gone unnoticed by state Health
Director Will Humble. He is asking the Arizona
Attorney General's Office to investigate whether
these clubs are little more than thinly disguised
places where marijuana is being sold illegally.

Sobol, however, said he is unconcerned. In fact,
he told Capitol Media Services he would welcome a
court challenge. =93We'll win,=92=92 he said.

The voter-approved law allows anyone with a
doctor's recommendation to obtain a state-issued
card allowing the purchase of up to 2 1/2 ounces
of marijuana every two weeks from a
state-licensed dispensary. It also permits
cardholders to grow their own if they are at
least 25 miles from an outlet. Humble, after
consulting with Gov. Jan Brewer, decided in May
not to even take applications for the
dispensaries until a federal judge decides
whether Arizona can implement its law despite
federal statutes making possession, sale and distribution of the drug a
felony.

And of the 7,570 patient applications already
approved, 6,067 have state permission to
cultivate. Where Sobol comes in relates to a
little-known provision of the law that allows one
certified patient or caregiver to give marijuana
to another =93if nothing of value is transferred in return.

That is the model of the Arizona Compassion
Association, a nonprofit corporation that gives
away samples that are donated by patients who
have grown more than they need or have given the
association the right to grow on their behalf.

The only thing is, you have to belong to Sobol's
2811 Club =AD so named for the section of law
dealing with giving away marijuana =AD to get
access to the association and its free marijuana.

And that requires paying a fee.

The cost to get into one of the largest, the 2811
Club in north Phoenix, is $75 each time, or $700 annually.

And that has gotten Humble's attention. =93They=92re
using a shell game to make it appear that nothing
of value has exchanged,'=92 he said. Sobol said that=92s not the case.

He said the fees pay for everything from the
building security and staff to the classes on
growing marijuana that are free for members.
Those fees, he said, also pay for testing and
grading the marijuana. But it is more complex
than that. Sobol acknowledged that his company
does make donations to the nonprofit
organization. And he said that organization, in
turn, can legally reimburse growers for their
costs, like the purchase of hydroponic equipment,
though he said growers cannot charge for their
time and labor. =93I'm not a lawyer,=92=92 Humble said.
=93But on its surface, to me it looks like it very
well could be an illegal transaction.'=92 So far,
though, Phoenix police do not appear concerned.

Sobol said several officers showed up to check
the place out, hear his description of the
operation and went away, apparently satisfied.

Humble said even if this concept of a marijuana
club is not a crime, this kind of operation may
be beyond what the medical marijuana law
anticipated. =93In fact, something of value has
been exchanged,'=92 he said. The samples are not
large, running about three grams =AD slightly more
than a tenth of an ounce. But this isn't your
mother's marijuana, with the psychoactive
ingredient running into the 15-plus percent
range, far above the 1 to 3 percent stuff
available in the 1960s. So it doesn't take much to get the same effect.

The resolution of the legal issues Humble is
raising will determine whether marijuana clubs
could be sprouting up all over the state. Under
the voter-approved measure, there is a limit of
one dispensary for each 10 pharmacies in the state.

That computes out to 125. Humble's agency has
decided to spread those out among each of the
health planning districts, which are roughly
divided by population. The law also permits
cities and counties to enact =93reasonable zoning
restrictions'=92 to limit where dispensaries can be
located. Several communities have limited these
operations to specific industrial or commercial zones.

And there also are requirements that keep them a
certain distance from schools and churches.

But Sobol has his business classified as a
school, based on the classes that are offered there.

That escapes all the other zoning requirements,
allowing clubs to operate anywhere a school can be established.

Sobol said even if Humble's agency eventually
starts licensing dispensaries, the clubs are
likely to multiply because of the advantages to
operating that way. The concept of marijuana
clubs is not the only way Sobol is testing the
limits of the law. Under the terms of the
statute, anyone with permission to cultivate for
self-use can grow up to 12 plants at any one
time. But Sobol said someone with a medical
marijuana card and the right to grow is entitled
to assign that right to another patient or a
designated state-licensed caregiver. Caregivers,
in turn, can provide for the needs of up to five
patients. That means growing 60 plants at a time
=AD 72 if the caregiver also is a patient. Sobol
said members of his club are told of their option
to designate that right to the Arizona Compassion
Club, which then finds qualified individuals to
each grow 72 plants =AD marijuana that eventually
finds its way onto the shelves in the sample bottles.