PHOENIX β Arizona adults could be legally purchasing marijuana for recreational use by the end of the week.
State health officials began accepting applications Tuesday to run some of the more than 120 recreational sites that voters agreed to in November to allow to sell marijuana to anyone.
On paper, the state has up to 60 days to review and approve. But Arizona Department of Health Services spokesman Steve Elliott told Capitol Media Services itβs not going to take anywhere near that long.
βOur goal is not to be a barrier,β he said.
So could licenses be in place and sales begin this week?
βWeβll see,β said Elliott.
The process should be fairly simple as the initial batch of retail sales licenses will be going to shops already set up to provide medical marijuana. These are facilities where the owners and the employees already have been vetted by the state.
But itβs not automatic.
Attorney Ryan Hurley who is with Copperstate Farms, said there are technical issues. For example, those people who are licensed as a βdispensary agentβ under the medical marijuana law now need to apply to be a βfacility agent.β That means additional paperwork.
Hurley said, though, he sees no reason why legal sales wonβt start next week β or even as early as this weekend.
All this is a direct result of passage of Proposition 207. Approved by a 3-2 margin, it allows anyone 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana or six plants.
Officially speaking, the law took effect last month after the election results were formally certified. So, as of early December, no adult could be arrested for having an ounce of marijuana or less.
Only thing is, there is not yet a place where Arizonans who do not already have a card as a medical marijuana user can legally purchase it.
That is what will change once the state approves the new recreational licenses, making flowers, edibles and other mixtures as available as a head of lettuce.
Sort of.
It still requires presentation of a state-recognized identification card proving age, though that does not have to be from Arizona.
Still, Hurley acknowledged, there are ways around that latter restriction for those who are so inclined. He said nothing in the law tracks individual sales to the point that one dispensary can find out if another one just sold an ounce of the drug to the same buyer.
βThe onus is on the individual,β said Hurley.
And, of course, possession of more than an ounce remains illegal, though anything up to 2Β½ ounces is a petty offense, subject only to a fine.
The new law creates a fiscal conundrum of sorts for the stateβs nearly 300,000 medical marijuana users: Should they keep their state-issued cards?
Most dispensaries are expected to charge the same amount, regardless of whether the drugs are being sold for medical or recreational use.
The new law, however, requires imposition of a 16% excise tax on recreational sales. And assuming a price of $200 an ounce β a figure that could vary widely β that additional fee amounts to $32.
So that makes sales to medical marijuana users cheaper.
But Hurley said itβs not that simple.
Anyone wanting a medical marijuana card first has to get a diagnosis from a doctor that he or she has a condition for which the drug can be recommended. These range from glaucoma and AIDS to severe and chronic pain.
Hurley figures an office visit can set someone back about $150.
Then thereβs the requirement for an identification card issued by the state, which carries its own $150 biennial fee.
βIβm guessing most people that have their cards will keep them until they expire,β he said. βUnless youβre a real heavy user, some people will probably not renew them.β
In either case, customers should come armed with cash.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law. And banks which are subject to federal regulation have been unwilling to accept credit card transactions from dispensaries.
Taxes aside, there is one other advantage to keeping a medical marijuana card. It allows individuals to purchase up to 2Β½ ounces every two weeks, versus being limited to possession of no more than an ounce at any one time.
Hurleyβs Copperstate Farms, which operates the four Sol Flower medical marijuana dispensaries, are hoping to be among the first to open their doors to recreational users. He said they submitted their applications Tuesday.
Photos: 2020 General Election in Pima County and Arizona
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Judge throws out lawsuit, finds no fraud or misconduct in Arizona election
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PHOENIX β A judge tossed out a bid by the head of the Arizona Republican Party to void the election results that awarded the stateβs 11 electoral votes to Democrat Joe Biden.
The two days of testimony produced in the case brought by GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward produced no evidence of fraud or misconduct in how the vote was conducted in Maricopa County, said Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner in his Friday ruling.
Warner acknowledged that there were some human errors made when ballots that could not be read by machines due to marks or other problems were duplicated by hand.
But he said that a random sample of those duplicated ballots showed an accuracy rate of 99.45%.
Warner said there was no evidence that the error rate, even if extrapolated to all the 27,869 duplicated ballots, would change the fact that Biden beat President Trump.
The judge also threw out charges that there were illegal votes based on claims that the signatures on the envelopes containing early ballots were not properly compared with those already on file.
He pointed out that a forensic document examiner hired by Wardβs attorney reviewed 100 of those envelopes.
And at best, Warner said, that examiner found six signatures to be βinconclusive,β meaning she could not testify that they were a match to the signature on file.
But the judge said this witness found no signs of forgery.
Finally, Warner said, there was no evidence that the vote count was erroneous. So he issued an order confirming the Arizona election, which Biden won with a 10,457-vote edge over Trump.
Federal court case remains to be heard
Fridayβs ruling, however, is not the last word.
Ward, in anticipation of the case going against her, already had announced she plans to seek review by the Arizona Supreme Court.
And a separate lawsuit is playing out in federal court, which includes some of the same claims made here along with allegations of fraud and conspiracy.
That case, set for a hearing Tuesday, also seeks to void the results of the presidential contest.
It includes allegations that the Dominion Software voting equipment used by Maricopa County is unreliable and was programmed to register more votes for Biden than he actually got.
Legislative leaders call for audit but not to change election results
Along the same lines, Senate President Karen Fann and House Speaker Rusty Bowers on Friday called for an independent audit of the software and equipment used by Maricopa County in the just-completed election.
βThere have been questions,β Fann said.
But she told Capitol Media Services it is not their intent to use whatever is found to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election.
In fact, she said nothing in the Republican legislative leadersβ request for the inquiry alleges there are any βirregularitiesβ in the way the election was conducted.
βAt the very least, the confidence in our electoral system has been shaken because of a lot of claims and allegations,β Fann said. βSo our No. 1 goal is to restore the confidence of our voters.β
Bowers specifically rejected calls by the Trump legal team that the Legislature come into session to void the election results, which were formally certified on Monday.
βThe rule of law forbids us to do that,β he said.
In fact, Bowers pointed out, it was the Republican-controlled Legislature that enacted a law three years ago specifically requiring the stateβs electors βto cast their votes for the candidates who received the most votes in the official statewide canvass.β
He said that was done because Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote nationwide in 2016 and some lawmakers feared that electors would refuse to cast the stateβs 11 electoral votes for Trump, who won Arizonaβs race that year.
βAs a conservative Republican, I donβt like the results of the presidential election,β Bowers said in a prepared statement. βBut I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election.β