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To say 2020 was a historic yr is an understatement.

Arizona landed in a strong eighth place among the many high ten most profitable hashish states due to its expansive medical hashish program. To shut out the yr, voters accepted Proposition 207, often known as the Sensible and Protected Arizona Act (SSAA), making Arizona one among 15 states, plus Washington D.C., to legalize the grownup use of hashish, which is predicted to rocket the state’s general hashish gross sales to new heights.

It’s important to this dialog that we make clear the 2 sides of this quickly rising trade. Medical hashish is a type of remedy, the grownup use and consumption of hashish is a selection. In the course of the pandemic, in lots of medical hashish states, the medical hashish trade was deemed a vital service and allowed to proceed offering beneficial drugs to sufferers and caregivers. As medical hashish packages proceed to offer safer therapeutic choices that are complementary to or function a substitute for many conventional remedies and narcotics, particularly opioids, sufferers could be assured the necessity for medical packages will proceed. Arizona’s grownup use hashish program imposes better limitations on amount and efficiency, whereas additionally requiring larger requirements for packaging. We noticed a development in the course of the pandemic as once more, many states prioritized and allowed their medical packages to proceed, whereas limiting grownup use amenities, in the identical method as different non-essential companies.

It’s additionally price noting that now we have seen many inevitable adjustments in affected person behaviors in the course of the pandemic, together with an elevated want for medical hashish. There was a affected person demand for comfort, security and no-contact companies, elevated on-line ordering, scheduling and curbside pick-up or supply. Many of those companies have been already on the rise in recognition all through the varied authorized states. Whereas Arizona’s leisure program prohibits supply till at the very least 2023, retail grownup use customers will anticipate a few of these companies to increase to the brand new market. As life after the COVID-19 pandemic continues on and the necessity for a few of these safer extra handy choices additionally continues, we hope to see them extra completely applied from a authorized and regulatory perspective. For now, listed below are the highlights we’ll see come into play within the first few months of 2021 as Arizona adopts its new grownup use hashish program.

Sensible and Protected Arizona Act (Prop 207):

  • Legalizes the sale, possession (one ounce) and consumption of grownup use hashish for adults at the very least 21 years previous.
  • Provides a 16 % excise tax on grownup use hashish gross sales, along with the state’s 5.6 %, totaling a 21.6 % tax.
  • Allocates an estimated $300 million in Arizona income to be divided between neighborhood faculty districts, municipal police, sheriff and hearth departments, hearth districts, freeway funds, public well being packages, infrastructure, and a brand new Justice Reinvestment Fund.
  • Allocates greater than $30 million yearly for dependancy prevention, substance remedy, teen suicide prevention, psychological well being packages, and justice reinvestment initiatives.
  • Offers alternatives for expungement of sure lesser cannabis-related crimes akin to possession, consumption, cultivation or transportation.

However after all, state legislation is only one a part of the equation. Grownup use hashish amenities have to be licensed individually from state to native ranges, together with counties to cities to native municipalities, all of which can additionally undertake guidelines and necessities by way of zoning and land use ordinances. Swift and sure timelines established by the Sensible & Protected Act dictate the speedy launch of this new program, first using the prevailing medical hashish infrastructure.

Many Arizona customers are underneath the impression that they’ll have the ability to stroll right into a dispensary on January 1, 2021 and purchase hashish. However that isn’t the case. They’ll have to attend till the Arizona Division of Well being Providers (AZDHS) completes the early applicant licensing course of, which begins in January 2021. At the moment, native and multistate operators are ready for AZDHS to finish the principles and laws for the grownup use hashish program. Listed here are two of essentially the most important steps to be navigated within the upcoming weeks:

Sensible and Protected Arizona Act (Prop 207) – Step 1: The Rulemaking Course of

AZDHS has been tasked with creating the rulemaking course of for the Sensible & Protected Act. The primary draft of the grownup use hashish program guidelines has already been launched, primarily consisting of the appliance necessities for the early applicant course of.  AZDHS collected its first spherical of public feedback for consideration on Thursday, December 17, 2020.  The precise particulars and parameters of the grownup use hashish program won’t be finalized or recognized for sure till AZDHS completes the rulemaking course of. We anticipate the following draft of grownup use hashish guidelines to be launched someday in early January.

Sensible and Protected Arizona Act (Prop 207) – Step 2: The Software Course of

AZDHS will start accepting early candidates underneath the Sensible & Protected Act on January 19, 2021, closing the method on March 9, 2021. Present medical hashish license holders who apply for and purchase an grownup use license within the early applicant course of can be approved to a dual-licensed dispensary (each medical and grownup use license), in addition to one offsite manufacturing facility (which can later be amended to incorporate each medical and grownup use manufacturing license), and offsite cultivation.

Early grownup use license candidates are reserved for those who at present maintain in good standing at the very least one Medical Marijuana Registration Certificates (“Medical Marijuana License”) and candidates making use of to counties with no present working dispensaries. Any county with a single working dispensary (a medical hashish dispensary) can be allotted an grownup use license (twin license) so long as the medical license holder is in good standing for the appliance.  All grownup use licenses allotted to these counties with out a present working dispensary should maintain that dispensary inside that county.

AZDHS could have 60 days to course of every software. Grownup use licenses for counties with out a present working dispensary can be allotted by way of a random choice course of, if greater than two purposes are obtained for that county. Moreover, upon the conclusion of the early applicant course of, any grownup use license that has not but been awarded by way of that course of, can be accessible to most of the people and allotted by way of a random choice course of.

This brings us to later phases of implementation of the Sensible & Protected Act: inside roughly six months of the adoption of the preliminary leisure program guidelines, AZDHS should develop and undertake the principles and laws for the Social Fairness Possession Program (SEOP). The first aim of the SEOP is to allocate 26 grownup use licenses to “communities disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of previous cannabis laws.” In different phrases, communities disproportionately and negatively impacted by hashish criminalization. Sensible & Protected is mild on the precise method and course of at this level, so Arizona voters and hashish corporations will look to AZDHS for the event and implementation of this necessary a part of the grownup use program. Keep tuned.