Good news. The first draft of the proposed Arizona medical marijuana rules issued by the Arizona Department of Health Services on December 17, 2010, says that the entity that owns and operates a medical marijuana dispensary can be a limited liability company (the preferred entity of choice in Arizona), a corporation, sole proprietorship (a mistake), general partnership (a mistake) or a limited partnership (not a mistake, but somewhat obsolete in Arizona).
Although the nonprofit corporation is the only type of entity recognized by Arizona statutory law as a nonprofit entity, the ADHS correctly did not interpret the language of Proposition 203 as requiring that medical marijuana dispensary nonprofits be Arizona nonprofit corporations. The biggest problem with a nonprofit corporation used for a business is that nobody actually owns an Arizona nonprofit. See my June 6, 2010, article called “Arizona Proposition 203 – Legalization of Medical Marijuana” on whether MMD nonprofits must be Arizona nonprofit corporations in which I stated:
“Proposition 203 creates a big problem for people who are contemplating creating an MMD? The $64,000 question is must an Arizona MMD be created as an Arizona nonprofit corporation or can it be one of the types of entities typically formed to make a profit, but operated as a nonprofit entity? We will not know the answer to this question until DHS gives us the answer or it approves MMDs that are not Arizona nonprofit corporations.”
If you need an Arizona attorney to form your Arizona LLC, see the links on the right column of this website and hire Arizona medical marijuana attorney Richard Keyt, aka the Arizona medical marijuana lawyer, to form your Arizona LLC.
