The following was posted on Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble’s blog on April 11, 2012:

The tumblers have clicked, and the race to apply for a dispensary is on.  Our revised rules for regulating Medical Marijuana were filed and became official today- and we’ll be accepting applications for Medical Marijuana Dispensary Registration Certificates from May 14 through May 25.

The unofficial rules incorporate the changes that were required by a recent Superior Court Ruling.  The judge ordered us: 1) to strike several of the selection criteria we had been planning to use for competitive areas of the state (areas where there will be more than 1 applicant per Community Health Analysis Area); and 2) to implement the law-  which is what we’re doing.

You can check out our Registration Certificate Application Checklist, Registration Certificate Application Instructions, and the official Registration Certificate Application on our Medical Marijuana Dispensary webpage.  Please don’t try to apply early- the first day we’ll actually accept applications will be May 14.   Starting May 14th, every day or so, we’ll refresh our dispensary application page to show how many applications we’ve received by Community Health Analysis Area (CHAA).

We’ll start reviewing applications as they come in (starting on May 14) and we’ll stop taking applications at the close of business (5 p.m.) on May 25.  We’ll have 30 working days to review the applications- and applicants will have 20 working days to submit any documents or information that were missing during our review of the application.  We expect to award Medical Marijuana Dispensary Registration Certificates on August 7.  If there’s only 1 qualified applicant in a CHAA, that applicant will be awarded a Registration Certificate.  We’ll be holding a random drawing in early August to award Registration Certificates in CHAAs with more than 1 qualified applicant.

Please visit our Medical Marijuana website if you have any further questions.  The materials that you’ll need to apply are all posted on-line- including the Application Checklist, Application Instructions, and the official Medical Marijuana Dispensary Registration Certificate Application