June 14th, 2011
“Serenity Arizona and Medzona Group had the property leases, zoning permits and capital to open up to six dispensaries across the state and planned to apply for permits this month.
But state Department of Health Services Director Will Humble put the dispensary permit process on hold just days before it was to begin, citing a federal lawsuit filed by Gov. Jan Brewer that asks a judge to decide whether Arizona’s voter-approved law is enforceable since it conflicts with federal drug statutes.
Attorney Ken Frakes, representing the dispensary owners, said the pending federal case does not give the state license to ignore its own law.
The state was to accept permit applications for a month, beginning June 1. The law requires the health department to initiate and oversee the process and requires the dispensaries to be non-profit operations. Rules approved by the department limit the number of dispensaries to 126 statewide and include a variety of minimum requirements for potential dispensary owners.
Jane Christensen said she met those requirements and intended to open three dispensaries, including one in Paradise Valley and another in Payson.
“We are concerned that the state is putting medical marijuana into a crisis situation,” she said. “A lot of caregivers will be growing marijuana in backyards with no oversight.”
Proposition 203, approved by voters in November, legalized medical marijuana use for people with certain debilitating conditions and allowed them to designate someone as a “caregiver” to grow or otherwise obtain marijuana for them.
Since there are not yet any licensed dispensaries, caregivers and patients are allowed to grow their own. The state has licensed nearly 3,800 growers so far.
Frakes said Humble and the health department have no right to upend the dispensary application process and withhold the required state application.
“The ultimate goal here is to require the Department of Health Services to publish the application . . . and to live up to the obligation of their non-discretionary duties,” Frakes said.
The health department was preparing a statement to respond to the suit.
Arizona and 15 other states have medical marijuana laws that conflict with federal law, which outlaws the cultivation, sale or use of marijuana.
Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne said their federal lawsuit was prompted by a letter from U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke to Humble, warning that prospective pot growers and sellers could be prosecuted under federal drug-trafficking laws.
Horne and Brewer maintain that his letter, along with a raft of memos from federal prosecutors in other states, signaled a harder-line policy and the threat that state workers could be prosecuted.”
