Today Will Humble, Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said on his blog:
“With the recent ruling in Maricopa Superior Court, ADHS is analyzing the best way to responsibly begin accepting applications for medical marijuana dispensaries. Last week, the Governor instructed ADHS to proceed with the dispensary portion of the AMMA. One of the stumbling blocks was the pending Compassion First vs. Arizona case, which challenged some of ADHS’ rules for prospective dispensary owners. Now that the judge has ruled, ADHS is working to determine the next steps to begin accepting dispensary applications.”
The starter’s pistol was fired and the race to find a location for your dispensary is on. The three most important tasks all prospective Arizona medical marijuana dispensaries must do yesterday are:
- Form your nonprofit entity that will be the signer on the lease for the premises in which the dispensary will sell medical marijuana to patients and where it will grow medical marijuana.
- Find a location for your dispensary that is properly zoned to allow the medical marijuana dispensary use and arrange to have the nonprofit entity sign a lease with the landlord.
- Apply for a comfort letter from the applicable zoning authority.
Before the Governor killed Arizona medical marijuana dispensaries last year it was the wild wild west as far as finding suitable sites and getting them tied up. Given the threats the U.S. attorneys have been making to landlords (cancel leases to medical marijuana dispensaries or you will forfeit your land) I predict there will be fewer landlords who are willing to lease to a dispensary so the demand for the fewer properly zoned sites will be much greater than last year.
