State Law Forbids Disclosing Names, Locations

The ballyhooed lottery to determine who will be selling medical marijuana in Mesa has come and gone, but the city is still in the dark as to who those are.

The Arizona Department of Health Services lottery was last week to select who will be allowed to take the final steps to open marijuana dispensaries.

Arizona voters approved the program by a narrow margin in 2010. It is moving forward despite numerous public officials warning that it conflicts with federal drug laws.

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State Attorney General Tom Horne and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery must think of Ryan Hurley as the boogeyman.

He's actually worse than that. He's a lawyer.

Which still puts him ahead of Horne and Montgomery, who are lawyers and politicians, as well as two men doing everything they can to keep the state from fully implementing the medical-marijuana law that -- for a third time -- was approved by voters.

Apparently the top law-enforcement officials in the state have solved Arizona's crime problem and now have time to frighten sick people and threaten those who want to help them.

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When the winners of the state lottery for new medical marijuana dispensaries were drawn earlier this week, a couple of things were conspicuously absent: The names of the winners and the locations at which they intend to do business.

The state Department of Health Services says that information is private.

How can that be? Don't people deserve to know whether a marijuana dispensary is opening right down the street? Yes, they do. So who decided this information can be kept private? Well, sorry to say, it was the voters who approved that provision as part of Prop. 203, the Medical Marijuana Act.

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After Tuesday's state lottery for medical marijuana dispensaries, the application for a Sahuarita location appears to be the only one alive in the area, and the applicant said he is looking forward to opening up.

However, there is no clear timetable for future developments because the state has not actually approved any dispensaries yet. The lottery simply winnowed the list to one applicant in each health planning area. No one applied for the Green Valley planning area.

An applicant was chosen in a larger health planning area known as Continental that includes part of Sahuarita east of Nogales Highway, but that location appears to be in Tucson. The Arizona Department of Health Services does not release addresses for dispensary applications, but applicants must obtain zoning approval from cities, towns or counties, and those records are public.

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PHOENIX - Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a waiver to allow Attorney General Tom Horne to try to close down the marijuana dispensaries that her state health department is in the process of licensing.

The move comes in the wake of Horne's legal opinion that the state cannot legally permit anyone to sell marijuana, even to those who have a doctor's recommendation to use the drug. Horne said as long as the drug remains illegal under federal law, the state is powerless to authorize anything to the contrary.

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Identity of northern Gila County dispensary lottery winner still secret

No one knows for sure where a dispensary will open in Payson, but one thing is clear -- if you have a medical marijuana identification card in Gila County, you won't be prosecuted.

On Tuesday, despite serious legal concerns, the state Department of Health Services selected more than 100 dispensary operators throughout the state.

Health Services issued a dispensary certificate for Payson to one of the nine applicants, giving them authority to grow medical marijuana and sell it. However, the identity of the winner of the dispensary certificate in northern Gila County remains confidential for the moment.

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PHOENIX -- Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a waiver that will allow Attorney General Tom Horne to try to close down the marijuana dispensaries that her state health department is in the process of licensing.

The move comes in the wake of Horne's formal legal opinion that the state cannot legally permit anyone to sell marijuana, even only to those who have a doctor's recommendation to use the drug. Horne said as long as the drug remains illegal under federal law, the state is powerless to authorize anything to the contrary.

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PHOENIX -- State health officials issued the first 97 allocations Tuesday to operate medical marijuana dispensaries amid threats of litigation on multiple fronts.

The random selection process culled 404 applicants who were in competitive bids to get licensed in 68 of the state's "community health analysis areas.' Slots for another 29 areas drew only one applicant each.

Two areas remain under legal dispute and the balance, mainly tribal lands, had no applicants at all.

By law, the state cannot identify the successful applicants or even the locations where they plan to operate.

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PHOENIX -- State health officials issued the first 97 allocations Tuesday to operate medical marijuana dispensaries amid threats of litigation on multiple fronts.

The random selection process culled 404 applicants who were in competitive bids to get licensed in 68 of the state's "community health analysis areas."

Slots for another 29 areas drew only one applicant each.

Two areas remain under legal dispute and the balance, mainly tribal lands, had no applicants at all.

By law, the state cannot identify the successful applicants or even the locations where they plan to operate.

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Arizona stepped deeper into the national legal quandary surrounding medical marijuana Tuesday with the selection of nearly 100 dispensaries throughout the state, some of which could begin selling the drug in a matter of weeks.

The tedious, four-hour bingo-style drawing in a state Department of Health Services auditorium came a day after Attorney General Tom Horne declared that the dispensaries violate federal drug laws and as Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery vowed to prosecute any that opened.

Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble said the voter-approved medical-marijuana law has been fraught with legal issues since before it became law in 2010. All he can do, he said, is implement the rules accurately and fairly.

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If all the threats pre-election and post-election have not been enough, the sight of lottery balls being plucked out of the Atom Action Bubble Top Bingo Blower was a convincing sign to medical marijuana proponents that they are taking a gamble.

In fact, the mixed signals they continue to get from government officials are forcing the whole process into a real dice game.

There could be legal and financial repercussions for those trying to make use of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.

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About 20 certified in Southern Arizona; litigation threatened

PHOENIX - State health officials selected the first 97 potential operators of medical marijuana dispensaries Tuesday amid threats of litigation on multiple fronts.

The voter initiative allowing the sale of medical marijuana provides for 126 such dispensaries distributed among the state's "community health analysis areas."

Sixty-eight of those areas were hotly contested, drawing a total of 404 applicants. Winners in those areas were selected through a random lottery. Another 29 areas drew only one applicant each.

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SIERRA VISTA - Medical marijuana dispensary certificates have been awarded to applicants from the Community Health Analysis Areas that include Sierra Vista, Bisbee, Douglas and Benson.

Three applications were considered in the Sierra Vista area, which includes Huachuca City, according to the Arizona Department of Health Service's lottery results.

Two of these applicants have filed a form with the City of Sierra Vista that indicates they are located within the city limits.

The two applicants in Sierra Vista are:

* Advanced Organics, LLC, using a location at 1700 S. Hwy 92, and;

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Even as the Arizona Health Department awarded licenses Tuesday for medical marijuana dispensaries in Arizona - including three here in Yuma County - new legal roadblocks loomed.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne announced Monday he will seek a court ruling to get the dispensaries declared illegal since they cannot exist under federal drug laws. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is making a similar dispensaries challenge and may eventually go after individual medical marijuana users for breaking laws against illegal drugs.

Horne argued a state law cannot override a federal law. He is correct, unless that federal law is overturned, but it is an ironic argument since some state lawmakers and others have argued state authority can actually be superior to federal authority under our Constitution. The so-called state's rights claim has become a key argument on various issues in our state.

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There were 126 applications drawn Tuesday to locate medical marijuana dispensaries around the state, including one in the Verde Valley and another in the greater Sedona area.

Eight dispensary-eligible applicants were in the drawing for a dispensary in the Sedona CHAA. There were 14 that sought a location serving Northeast Yavapai County.

As Department of Health Director, Will Humble, notes, the selection is just one of the first steps. Applicants must also meet other security and other requirements. And then, the County Attorneys throughout the state say sale of marijuana violates federal law and may not be allowed. Another challenge is pending.

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Growers Await Outcome of Statewide Lottery for Dispensaries

You can't really tell what's going on in the nondescript, tan stucco home in a booming Maricopa neighborhood until you walk inside, down the carpeted hallway, to the room with the warm yellow light glowing under the door.

"You don't really smell it until the door is opened," said Scott, 30, unlocking the door with a set of keys he always keeps with him. "And then, it hits you."

The bedroom shelters a full-scale legal medical-marijuana farm, with 5-foot-tall plants sprouting crystallized buds, and other plants at varying degrees of growth. A custom ventilation system cools the room. A humidifier keeps it moist; a hydroponic system pumps nutrients into plant roots; and professionally wired high-powered grow lamps are rigged to a timer.

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Mesa in line for 4; one district has no eligible sites

Mesa will find out this week who will be authorized to operate the four medical-marijuana dispensaries likely to set up shop in the city.

The Arizona Department of Health Services will conduct a lottery on Tuesday to choose from the scores of applicants vying for the business of people legally authorized to use marijuana.

Mesa has five of Arizona's 126 so-called community health analysis areas, each of which is authorized to have one dispensary.

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Medical marijuana? What's to like?

The concept starts by elevating a street drug to the level of therapeutic pharmaceutical. There's the canard about how pot is just another "natural" choice for patients, like herbal tea.

But despite our misgivings, and those of the state's prosecutors and sheriffs, medical marijuana is the law. Arizona voters approved it, in 2010, and their votes should mean something.

Gov. Jan Brewer has little choice but to reject law enforcement's calls to stop the program.

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PHOENIX - State officials will award the first-ever licenses to legally sell marijuana this coming week under what one prosecutor said is a cloud of having them shut down the moment they open their doors.

The big day comes Tuesday when state health officials will pull out a device most resembling the machine used to pick lottery numbers.

In fact, that's really what it is: a lottery to determine which of the 486 applicants are going to walk away with a certificate that awards them permission - pending final inspection - to be one of the 126 sites where marijuana can be sold. In areas where there are multiple applicants for the same neighborhood, the business whose pre-numbered pingpong ball that the machine spits out is the winner.

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State Is Set to Award Licenses on Tuesday

The Arizona Department of Health Services will hold a muchanticipated - - and highly controversial - lottery on Tuesday to select medical-marijuana dispensaries.

State officials have decided to move forward with licensing the dispensaries, even as 13 county attorneys have urged Gov. Jan Brewer to halt the process and federal prosecutors have moved to shut down the nation's largest medicalmarijuana dispensary in California. The Los Angeles City Council, meanwhile, ordered each of the city's 762 dispensaries to shut down.

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