On November 19, 2012, Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services Will Humble wrote the following on his blog:
“Last Thursday I announced in a blog post that our team had just returned from a field inspection for a dispensary applicant in Glendale, that there were no major deficiencies, and that we had awarded the dispensary an “Approval to Operate”. Today the Applicant asked for a short delay in the effective date for their Operating License in order to ensure that things run smoothly when they officially begin operations. Our team approved a delay in their license’s effective date this afternoon.
Once the new dispensary begins its operations, we will no longer be approving “requests to cultivate” among new (and renewing) cardholders in most of the metro area… because self-grow (12 plants) is only allowed when the patient lives more than 25 miles from the nearest operating dispensary according to the law. The vast majority of the Valley is within 25 miles of this new (but not yet operating) dispensary.
As an FYI… once a dispensary is operating, it is required by our rules to be “… operating and available to dispense medical marijuana to qualifying patients and designated caregivers at least 30 hours weekly between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.”
