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Marijuana plants flourish under grow lights at a warehouse in Denver on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010. Like Colorado, Arizona municipalities are considering ways to regulate marijuana dispensaries should Arizonans pass Proposition 203, which would legalize marijuana for medical purposes. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
Cities and towns are preparing to regulate the placement of marijuana dispensaries in the event that voters on Nov. 2 approve a ballot initiative that would allow the use of the drug for medical purposes.
Municipalities fear that without restrictions, the roughly 120 marijuana dispensaries that would be allowed to open could cluster in cities or be placed near churches, parks, community centers and even drug-treatment facilities.
Some cities have already begun drafting their own zoning regulations, while others may take advantage of work being done by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, which is drawing up a model ordinance.
“The goal is to have these dispensaries not be disruptive to other parts of the community – neighborhoods, parks, schools, churches and those kinds of things,” said Ken Strobeck, the league’s executive director.
Even the state’s chief health official is urging municipalities to move quickly, saying that without local restrictions, the Department of Health Services would not have discretion to deny marijuana dispensary licenses to qualifying parties, beyond ensuring they are placed at least 500 feet from schools.
Proposition 203 allows local governments to enact zoning regulations limiting the placement of these facilities.
“I don’t want to end up issuing a license for a dispensary next to their public pool or something,” said Department of Health Services Director Will Humble, who added that regulations should be in place by March, when the law would go into effect.
Cities and towns are proceeding on the assumption that Prop. 203 will pass, Strobeck said, because polls indicate that the measure appears to have solid public support.
A Rocky Mountain Poll conducted early this month showed that a majority are supportive of the proposal to allow people with debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana. Among 405 likely voters, support for the proposal stood at 52 percent while 32 percent opposed it, and 14 percent were undecided.
The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
The Department of Health Services is also looking whether it could distribute the dispensary licenses for each county based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s population data, Humble said. The proposition limits the total number of licenses to one for every 10 pharmacies in the state and cultivation of the marijuana must be handled by each nonprofit dispensary.
The initiative would allow for qualifying patients to grow up to 12 marijuana plants at their home if they live at least 25 miles from the nearest dispensary. Humble said that by reserving some licenses for rural counties he hopes to limit the number of patients who will resort to growing their own marijuana and prevent parts of the state from becoming “grow-your-own areas.”
“If I allocate by county then I have an opportunity to provide more robust coverage in all parts of the state and minimize the potential for too many self-growers,” Humble said.
Meanwhile, the state’s two most populous cities, Phoenix and Tucson, are discussing regulating the potential new industry.
A Tucson ordinance on medical marijuana dispensaries will be discussed at a Nov. 9 city council meeting.
The ordinance would restrict dispensaries to certain commercial zones, space them by at least 2,000 feet from each other and prohibit them from being less than 1,000 feet from schools, churches, parks and drug-treatment facilities.
It would also limit the size of dispensaries to 2,500 square feet, prohibit them from offering a delivery or drive-through service and restrict their hours of operation to between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Cultivation facilities, which are allowed to be up to 3,000 square feet in size, must follow similar spacing requirements.
The council put off an earlier vote on the ordinance because it wanted more time to review the issues, see whether or not Prop. 203 passes and possibly make some revisions, said Tucson Vice Mayor Shirley Scott.
“At first, we wanted to be more proactive,” she said. “But then when it came to all of these issues surrounding the locations and size of facilities, we thought maybe we should stop and think again.”
Scott said that the council is eager to address the issue because of concerns surrounding the potential for proliferation of sites throughout the community if no zoning regulations are put in place, but the council will have 120 days to make changes to the city’s land use codes should voters approve the initiative on Nov. 2.
Michelle B. Graye, chapter secretary of the marijuana legalization advocacy group AZ4NORML, said that some of the provisions in the ordinance, such as the ban on delivery service, would be too restrictive.
“Dispensaries are going to have to be able to deliver to cancer and Alzheimer’s patients who won’t be able to go out and get their medication,” she said.
Graye said she has no qualms with the desire to keep dispensaries out of residential areas, but the spacing requirements coupled with limiting locations to a small number of commercial zones will make it too difficult to find a place where a dispensary can open in Tucson.
“What they really want to do is zone you out of town,” she said. “But Circle Ks have more problems than medical marijuana dispensaries are going to have.”
Phoenix City Council member Peggy Neely has spearheaded efforts to ensure that rules and regulations are in place in the state’s largest city.
“If you look in other states that have passed similar laws, they have not taken proper precautions in regulating where these facilities are,” Neely said. “With payday loans, Phoenix was slow at putting in some sort of guidelines on where they were located and if you drive up the street you can see where there were two or three in one block.”
She said she wants dispensaries to be located away from residential zones, schools, daycare centers and parks. She is also adamant that the dispensaries put in place extensive security requirements and limit the signs they would be allowed to display.
Reporter Luige del Puerto contributed to this story