State may see early wave of home-grown marijuana operations

Al Sobel, who runs Marijuana Marketing Strategies and offers consulting to people interested in pursuing a dispensary or caregiver license, says he sees home-growing as a viable option for the initial patients, and that he’s explaining that to his clients. (Photo by Evan Wyloge/Arizona Capitol Times)

The first wave of patients to take advantage of Arizona’s new medical marijuana law may be compelled to apply for home-growing operations because the drug will not be available in licensed dispensaries until late summer, opening the door for thousands of household marijuana gardens.

A provision in Proposition 203 says that patients can apply for self-growing licenses if they live more than 25 miles from an “operating dispensary.” That provision was intended to place restrictions on the number of self-growing operations in the state.

But because dispensary licenses won’t begin to be issued until April — and the marijuana plants at those facilities won’t be ready for consumption until late summer — the definition of an “operating dispensary” becomes the key question in whether the state would be required to dole out self-growing licenses to approved patients.

It’s just one of the questions that the state Department of Health Services is examining, and frankly, doesn’t have any answers.

“This is a good example of some of the details we will need to work out during the rulemaking process,” said Will Humble, DHS director.

Once the law is certified on

Nov. 29, the state will have four months to set the rules and get the program up and running. At that point, patients can begin submitting doctors’ recommendations for medical marijuana, and dispensaries can apply for licenses.

But the process for issuing up to 124 dispensary licenses will take time, and then the dispensaries that are chosen for licenses will have to grow the marijuana, which will take several more months.

Ryan Hurley, an attorney at Rose Law Group who has been decoding the law for his clients, said he has spoken with Humble, and the concern about a groundswell of home growers came up in their conversations.

“(The state Department of Health Services) can’t stop that from happening. The language makes that a reality,” Hurley said. “I don’t know if AZDHS will try to ameliorate that.”

Hurley said he’s not sure which mechanism Humble and the health department could use to avoid allowing widespread home growing, even if that was its goal.

A spokesperson from the Department of Health Services said that the department needs to allow the rulemaking process to move forward without stating opinions about personal cultivation.

Hurley also said he believes doctors giving recommendations to patients will be aware of the personal cultivation option, and will likely educate patients about it.

How individual patients use marijuana apparently is up to them.

Andrew Myers, who managed the campaign for

Prop. 203, said he thinks personal cultivation will be an effective method for getting medical marijuana during the initial start-up of the program.

“Personal cultivation is a popular way to go,” Myers said. “And that’s not a scary thing. Frankly, that’s preferable to what’s happening right now, where patients are getting their medication from the criminal market and the cartels.”

Myers said the measure was crafted to make sure that the personal marijuana cultivation would be a viable option for patients, and during a Nov. 15 press conference Humble said, he was aware of this issue.

“How can you say whether they’re 25 miles away from the nearest dispensary, when you haven’t given out a dispensary license yet?” Humble said. “It’s a conundrum.”

Whether that means every approved medical marijuana patient will be growing their own marijuana at home, Humble said will ultimately be clarified in the 120-day rulemaking process his department is responsible for. It will also depend on whether patients would even want to grow their own.

Al Sobel, who runs Marijuana Marketing Strategies and offers consulting to people interested in pursuing a dispensary or caregiver license, said he sees home-growing as a viable option for the initial patients, and that he’s explaining that to his clients.

“We’ve talked about that many, many times, and I think that’s what’s going to happen … if there’s no dispensary to get it at, well I think you have the option of growing your own,” Sobel said. “Theoretically, you could have pot growing all over Phoenix and Maricopa County.”

Heather Wright, who lives in Dewey and runs a hair salon there, came to Sobel’s north Phoenix office on

Nov. 16 to find out how she can become a licensed dispensary operator or caregiver. After meeting with Sobel, Wright said she intends to pursue the dispensary license.

“It’s like getting a liquor license after Prohibition,” Wright said.

Wright said she suffers from Reiter’s Syndrome, a rare and acute form of arthritis that she believes will qualify her to at least be a medical marijuana patient, and that she plans to grow her own marijuana as soon as possible, even if she can’t get a dispensary license.

“In the beginning, I’ll do mine,” Wright said. “And if others I know get a card, it’s possible that we’ll be able to use their marijuana as well.”

Wright said she thinks using medical marijuana will be preferable to the narcotic pain medication she’s currently taking to deal with the pain associated with her illness.

Doug Hebert, who worked for the anti-Prop. 203 campaign, and who is a board member for the Partnership for a Drug Free America — Arizona chapter, said widespread home-growing operations will invite serious problems.

“We don’t need to look any further than Colorado to see the problems,” Hebert said. “You’ll have people rewiring their electrical systems to allow the high voltage growing lights, and we’ll see more residential fires as a result.”

Hebert also said inexperienced growers will have caustic herbicides, pesticides and fungicides stored in their homes, often where children live as well.

“And in some instances, depending on where these home-growing operations are, there will be home invasions to steal plants or marijuana or money,” Hebert said.

Because of an anti-discrimination provision written into the measure, landlords will not be able to have any say as to whether tenants are growing marijuana in their properties either, Hebert pointed out.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimated that the medical marijuana program will see 66,000 patients and caregivers within the first three years.