I received an email message from a pharmacist who had intended to seek a license to operate an Arizona medical marijuana dispensary. This person is a very experienced Arizona pharmacist who believes in the need for medical marijuana and who has experience operating a successful pharmacy business. Here’s the text of the message:
“For all your reasons listed from the division of areas to random selection, we have decided to leave the field. As professionals, as a pharmacist, I felt the only way to give medical marijuana professionalism was to have a pharmacist dispensing the medication or at least on staff or as a medical director, some significant role. However, pharmacists were completed excluded from any rules or regulations. The random nature of selection when you are a highly qualified candidate, just was too much to continue on with the process and all the changes and unforeseeable laws that will evolve.”
This message confirms my belief that the Arizona Department of Health Services’ lottery (aka random selection process) will drive many good people away from this new industry and increase the number of gamblers who are willing to bet $5,000 for a shot at a big jackpot that has much better odds than Arizona’s legal lottery.
