Starting in the summer, Arizona will start accepting a second round of applications for medical marijuana dispensaries, although the exact date and numbers of dispensary locations have yet to be released by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS).
In 2010, the ADHS issued 99 out of 126 licenses for Arizona dispensaries and it is assumed that the remaining 27 dispensary licenses shall become available this summer. When the first Arizona dispensary applications were received, the sum of at least $150,000 in the bank was required from the applicants. This provision was repealed in 2012 and is no longer required.
The application selection process will however, be the same and the lottery-style selection process shall be observed when two or more applications are received for the same general area and all meet the same criteria. Current rule also provides that, with the approval of ADHS, dispensaries that are in operation for more than 3 years have the preference to move their business to a new location. If these dispensaries opted to move to new locations, new applicants may be able to apply for those specific areas.
If existing dispensaries decided to move further in-state, some patients become eligible to grow their own medical marijuana at home because the law provides that if no dispensary is located within 25 miles of a patient’s home, the patient can request permission from the ADHS to cultivate marijuana for medical use.
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