Pubdate: Mon, 06 Aug 2012 Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) Copyright: 2012 The Arizona Republic Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24 Author: Gary Nelson ARIZONA WILL AWARD 4 MEDICAL-MARIJUANA DISPENSING LICENSES IN MESA 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. Gordon Sheffield, Mesa's zoning administrator, said Mesa probably will wind up with only four dispensaries, however. That's because the central Mesa district has no areas that are eligible under the city's zoning law. The City Council immediately began wrestling with where to allow dispensaries after Arizona voters in 2010 gave razor-thin approval to Proposition 203, which allows the sale of medical-grade marijuana to people who have a doctor's permission to use it for certain conditions. The council at first considered allowing dispensaries in both retail and industrial areas, but then narrowed that out of concern over the image Mesa might project if someone were selling pot, for example, along the light-rail corridor. Mayor Scott Smith said in early 2011 that there are plenty of attractive, industrially zoned areas where patients wouldn't have trouble finding a dispensary. The medical-marijuana law survived a court battle launched when Gov. Jan Brewer filed a lawsuit seeking clarification of its provisions. A county judge dismissed the suit in January and Brewer decided not to appeal. That does not mean, however, that there is clear sailing. Arizona, the 16 other states with medical-marijuana laws and the District of Columbia are bucking federal law that prohibits the substance. The U.S. Department of Justice in March reiterated a warning that state employees are subject to federal prosecution for implementing Prop. 203. Other states have seen federal raids on marijuana facilities that were ostensibly legal under state law. Mesa police officials also said, when the council was debating the issue, that marijuana shops in other states have attracted criminals preying on both the patients and the shops themselves. The Arizona Department of Health Services, which is administering the program, has volumes of information on its website about the legalities and procedures of implementing the law. The department also lists, by district, the numbers of dispensary applications, qualified patients and caregivers. If the number of caregivers is fewer than 20, an exact number isn't given. That's the case in all five of Mesa's districts. By district, Mesa's numbers look like this: East: 628 patients, nine dispensary applications. Central: 391 patients, one dispensary application. West: 586 patients, 11 dispensary applications. North: 329 patients, nine dispensary applications. South: 381 patients, six dispensary applications. At this point, qualified patients and caregivers are the only ones who can legally cultivate marijuana. Each patient may cultivate up to 12 plants. Each caregiver may have up to five patients, so could potentially cultivate 60 plants. When the dispensaries are opened, cultivation centers also will be allowed legally. Once a dispensary opens within 25 miles of a patient's home, the patient is no longer allowed to grow or obtain product from a caregiver. Statewide, nearly 30,000 patients have qualified to take marijuana for ailments, including cancer and glaucoma. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt