Medical marijuana

A new law will eventually will give the Department of Health Services the authority to inspect everything that’s being sold out of state-licensed dispensaries.

 Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

Arizona adults will be allowed to legally smoke, eat or drink marijuana starting early next month, when Tuesday's election results are certified.

But it'll be another month before they can buy marijuana legally from a state-licensed outlet.

Proposition 207, when it formally becomes law the first week of December as the results are certified, will allow adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. They also can have up to six plants — double that if there are multiple adults in the house. As of late Tuesday, the measure was supported by 54% of the votes counted. 

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Opponents of Proposition 207 conceded defeat. But spokeswoman Lisa James claimed that the win was because of "deceit and self-interest'' by proponents. She pointed out the measure was crafted and financed by the owners of marijuana companies who stand to benefit financially.

"This unelected group of wealthy marijuana insiders wrote the rules for their new industry and almost single-handedly financed the proposition with one goal in mind: they get rich while Arizonans pay the price,'' she said in a prepared statement.

Steve White, CEO of Harvest Health and Recreation, a multi-state retailer of recreational and medical marijuana, put in nearly $2 million of the nearly $5 million spent in support of the proposition.

White acknowledged the measure is written in a way to all but guarantee that the firms that run existing medical marijuana dispensaries get one of the limited licenses to sell marijuana for recreational use. And anyone who wants to buy the drug will have to go to one of what would be between 130 and 160 sites in the state.

But White said if the state is to allow the sale of marijuana, it makes more sense to have that done by individuals and companies that already have been licensed to sell the drug for medical purposes.

As to the limits, White said these, too, are justified, arguing that Arizonans don't want the unlimited number of outlets that now exist in California and Colorado. And he said there will be sufficient outlets in the state to create competition to keep prices down.

That $5 million in spending overwhelmed foes, who had spent just $531,000 as of two weeks before the election.

Adoption of the initiative is in some ways just the next step to the 2010 voter-approved law allowing Arizonans with certain medical conditions to obtain up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks from state-licensed dispensaries. The most recent report from the Arizona Department of Health Services shows that nearly 280,000 people have such state-issued cards.

Now, effective no later than Dec. 2, all adults will be able to have up to an ounce of the drug without facing criminal charges.

But it won't be until at least January when the health department adopts the rules about who can sell marijuana for recreational use.

Arizona is joining 12 other states that permit adults to use the drug without a medical need, including California, Nevada and Colorado. Several other states have decriminalized possession of the drug but its use is not fully legal.

Aside from the rules for new retail outlets, the health department also has to adopt rules for testing marijuana for both quality as well as adulteration.

The approval is a setback for the Center for Arizona Policy, the socially conservative organization that provided the largest share of funds opposing the measure. 

LATEST: Live 2020 election results from Arizona, Pima County 

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