AZ Health Dept. holds lottery for medical marijuana dispensaries

Globe — For four hours on Tuesday morning, Aug. 7, media, health care professionals, and representatives of the Arizona Department of Health Services watched as little white plastic balls bounced around in a bingo machine before being sucked up to reveal the random recipient of a Medical Marijuana Registration Certification Allocation certificate. There were 29 CHAAs that had only one eligible applicant. Among these was the CHAA encompassing Globe/Hayden area of southern Gila County. In our local CHAA, Globe Farmacy’s application was the only qualifying one, asking for a dispensary in downtown Globe. For the 68 other CHAAs, the “winning” dispensary applicant was chosen by a lottery system. Overall, 404 applications were considered by the Department of Health for the 68 drawings. There were also 27 CHAAs where no applications were made.

The Director of the Department of Health, Will Humble, emphasized Tuesday morning that this is just the first step. This does not authorize anyone to open shop and start selling medical marijuana. This initial step basically allows the applicants who were chosen to start the process of building a dispensary. Before any dispensary can open in the state of Arizona, it will have to pass a rigorous inspection of both the facility and the business plan.

Tuesday’s lottery was for the purpose of Registration Certification Allocation. Director Humble told the media, “I don’t expect anything until the end of August.”

For the complete article see the 08-15-2012 issue.

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