After a year of legalization, marijuana advocates push for lower prices, better access

A little more than a year ago, Arizona voters approved Proposition 207, the Smart and Safe Arizona Act, which legalized adult-use marijuana and directed the state to establish a recreational market for the drug.

When all the ballots were counted, Proposition 207 won with 60% of the vote.

With that, Arizona joined more than 15 other states and the nation’s capital in legalizing marijuana for adult use. What followed in that year was a series of initial events for an industry that is both nascent and growing, as well as mature and established.

Here’s how Arizona’s year-old recreational marijuana market is doing, according to industry insiders.

Fast rollout

When Proposition 207 passed in November 2020, it would still be a few months before the Arizona Department of Health Services, the state agency tasked with setting up and regulating the state’s adult-use market, would have the rules and infrastructure in place to begin handing out recreational dispensary licenses.

However, unlike its 2020 peer states Montana and New Jersey, which also passed recreational marijuana measures in November of that year and have both yet to establish recreational infrastructure, Arizona quickly established a licensing system for its dispensaries.

“I think that the other kind of a feather in the cap as it were, in terms of the implementation of the program, is that we were up and running within 75 days,” said Samuel Richard, executive director for the Arizona Dispensary Association.

Before Arizona’s rollout, no other state had ever gone from approving a recreational ballot measure to implementation in faster than 90 days. Richard praised both AZDHS and the already established and robust medical marijuana dispensary network for helping to make such a quick turnaround possible.

“The decade of experience that we had working with each other leading into Prop. 207, we were able to open up adult use relatively quickly because they had a strong understanding of how the industry operates,” he said.

Mike Robinette, executive director of the Arizona branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, also praised the state for its rollout and said he believed the last year has been especially good for adults who have had to acquire marijuana on the street through the black market.

Additionally, the threat of legal consequences has been nearly eliminated.

“One thing that is incredibly impactful and positive is the fact that in the state of Arizona now, any adult 21 years or older who consumes cannabis responsibly will never be hassled again, or be prosecuted for such,” Robinette said.

On top of the end to marijuana prohibition within the state, Prop. 207 also set up a new legal mechanism to help expunge low-level marijuana and paraphernalia charges, something Robinette said is a game changer for people who have felt the most immediate effects of the “War on Drugs.”

While Robinette said the process isn’t being fully utilized by the population it’s targeted too, having the option to have such cases removed from a person’s record has had life-changing results.

“People have an opportunity now to have records sealed and expunged,” he said. “For convictions that have followed them for their lives and had deleterious effects on their lives due to those convictions.”

A work in progress

However, Robinette said when it comes to expungements, there’s a lot more the state could be doing. While language within the law calls for the legal process to expunge eligible offenses within a month, the reality is most cases are taking up to two months or more to be fully adjudicated.

He said he would like to see the process simplified and expanded, to help people who have already been burdened by the legal system.

“That way records can be pulled and people can, through prosecutor’s offices throughout Arizona, that those charges can just be automatically expunged,” he said.

Robinette also noted that the slow expungement process played a part in possibly keeping some eligible candidates for the state’s upcoming “social equity ownership program” from applying, since having expunged such cases from one’s record is one of the four stipulations to being eligible to even apply to the program.

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And having more dispensaries in more areas of the state is another area of concern for both Robinette and Richard.

Some municipalities, like Gilbert, preemptively passed ordinances that either severely limited or made it virtually impossible for recreational dispensaries to operate. Other jurisdictions, like tribal lands, which fall under the purview of the federal government, are also similarly underrepresented.

“It’s shrapnel from the war on drugs,” Richard said. “I don’t know how else to describe it, but when we’ve lived under prohibition for a century, it’s going to take a little while to come out and change the hearts and minds.”

Ultimately, the number of dispensaries is tied to a formula passed in 2010 in Prop. 203, Arizona’s Medical Marijuana Act, that ties the total number of dispensaries in the state to the number of retail pharmacies.

After the state distributes 26 social equity ownership licenses early next year, that total will stand at around 170 active dispensary licenses. According to Robinette, that means that not only do some areas see little to no access to medical or recreational dispensaries, prices for products are inflated.

That’s especially tough for low-income customers and patients, Robinette said.

“We are seeing some high prices on the market and that’s not good for patients, particularly patients who are on fixed incomes, are veterans who are patients, retirees who are patients.”

Robinette did say that NORML will be lobbying the Legislature in the coming session over ways of making Arizona’s medical marijuana program more affordable for groups who find themselves on fixed incomes.

“One of our other legislative agendas is to decrease patient card costs, to try to get patients some relief relative to that,” he said.

The future

Costs for consumers and patients are something Robinette and Richard would like to see come down as the recreational market grows and matures over the next five years.

David Belsky, the CEO of FlowerHire, a staffing and consulting agency that focuses on the legal cannabis market, said he expects consumer prices to drop in the next five years. It’s just a question of supply meeting demand.

“I think you’ll see lots of price compression,” Belsky said. “Like you’ll see the wholesale price of cannabis flower and cultivation drop substantially as more supply comes online.”

Belsky said he also foresees the array of products available to consumers increasing and diversifying to match what he’s seen in other states, as well as regulatory practices in place to govern the delivery of recreational marijuana to consumers.

Currently, a special license is required for delivery to medical patient’s only.

Arizona will face the same challenges other legal marijuana states, and almost every other industry, are facing in the next five years Belsky said: staffing.

“I think that frontline workers are a challenge to recruit for in any industry anywhere,” he said. “Currently, you have the ‘Great Resignation’ and all those things. However, I think cannabis is a more attractive industry for folks to work in than other more legacy industries.”

The reason for that allure?

It’s one of the best industries for people to achieve the “American Dream,” according to Belsky.

“What I mean by that is: you work hard, you’re a first mover in an industry, you get industry experience, you get a network and that industry is going to continue to grow and add jobs and add resources,” he said. “So you have the opportunity to move up, but based on hard work, by getting your foot in the door of this industry. You know, folks recognize that.”