Will Humble, Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said this on his blog on February 8, 2012:
“As you know from earlier blog posts a judge ruled in a state case that had challenged our dispensary applicant selection criteria. The judge’s decision basically struck down several of the selection criteria we had been planning to use to for competitive areas of the state (areas where there will be more than 1 applicant per Community Health Analysis Area.
Our teams are busy dotting the Is and crossing the Ts right now on an express rule package that would remove the dispensary selection criteria struck down (AZ residency, child support, previous bankruptcies etc.) and to set new dates to accept dispensary applications. Our rule changes will focus solely on making adjustments to comply with the judge’s decision and to set a new timeline for accepting dispensary applications.
Our team is making good progress on the Rule package, and we expect to be finished this month (February). I’ll keep you posted here, and I’ll let you know when the rule package is filed- including a link to the final set of rules. We’re still on track to be able to accept dispensary applications in April. We’d then have about 45 days to review and award dispensary certificates- so we could potentially award up to 125 dispensary certificates by mid- to late-June. If someone is pretty much ready to go at that point, we could see medical marijuana dispensaries operating in July or August.”
