Medical marijuana coming to Maricopa

After a come from behind victory made Arizona the 15th state permitting marijuana for medical use, the city of Maricopa will begin the process of writing an addition to the city code to regulate the placement of dispensaries and cultivation areas.

“We should begin working on this code next week,” said city of Maricopa Planning Manager Kazi Haque.

The initiative allows one marijuana dispensary for every 10 pharmacies, which amounts 124 statewide, and requires a minimum of one dispensary per county.

Cities are in charge of devising codes regulating the placement of dispensaries and giving primary approval for them to open.

The state Department of Health Services will also need to sign off on all locations.

“The way it will work is a dispensary will need to first receive approval from a city and then go to DHS for approval,” said Prop 203 campaign manager, Andrew Myers  “What DHS is going to be looking at is the financial security and background of a company.”

Currently, Marana, Tucson, Mesa and Gilbert are all either working on codes, have codes awaiting approval or are beginning to gather data from stakeholders to construct codes.

In Mesa, proposals being looked at include confining cultivation facilities to commercial and industrial zones; keeping dispensaries a half-mile from each other as well as from residential substance abuse and alcohol treatment facilities and from halfway houses for ex-inmates; keeping them a quarter-mile from churches, libraries, parks and homeowner association-maintained open spaces and keeping them 500 feet away from group homes for the handicapped, schools and day-care facilities.

The Arizona League of Cities and towns is also currently modeling an ordinance for use by cities and towns.

“We are coordinating this effort with the state Department of Health Services,” said League of Cities Director Ken Strobeck. “The agency director told us that cities and towns would need to adopt a zoning ordinance for the dispensaries by March of 2011.”

Haque said Maricopa would model its code after that drawn up by the league.

Myers said that, under the proposed codes, it will be possible for cities to ban dispensaries from their community through reasonable zoning restrictions. However, he added the question of what is reasonable he said would need to be defined by a judge.

If there is not a dispensary within 25 miles of any person with a prescription for medical marijuana, that person is allowed to grow up to 12 plants in their home.

“It is a question of do you want your residents growing marijuana in their homes or purchasing it at a store in the community,” Myers said. “I think Maricopa will most likely end up with one dispensary.”

The medical marijuana initiative was declared victorious this past weekend, winning by a margin of about 4,300 votes out of 1.6 million votes that were cast.

The general-election canvass, which verifies election results, will be held Nov. 29 and the Arizona Department of Health Services has 120 days from that day to finalize all rules for implementation of the new law. The department will likely begin reviewing dispensary and patient applications by April 2011.

Under the new law, licensed physicians can recommend medical marijuana to patients with chronic medical conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and Alzheimer’s disease.

Eligible patients will register for identification cards with the state health department and could receive up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two week.

“The language of the initiative is very restrictive about who can qualify for medical Marijuana,” Myers said. “It is for people with debilitating and terminal illness. This initiative is not going to be like those in Colorado and California that are plagued with abuse.”