Last summer a Superior Court judge decided that a portion of our medical marijuana regulations are unreasonable because our rules don’t have a process for dispensary registration certificate holders to renew their dispensary registration certificate if they didn’t earn their approval to operate within 1 year. That ruling requires us to change our medical marijuana regulations, and while we’re at it, we’ll be making additional changes not related to the Court ruling. A couple of months ago, we posted draft new rules and an on-line survey that helped better refine the first draft.
Today we posted the next iteration of draft rules. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be meeting with a stakeholder group consisting of patients, dispensary representatives, and folks from cities and towns to help us build our Final Draft Rules for Public Comment. We are also inviting the public to provide input on line. Based on the comments that we receive on the Final Draft Rules for Public Comment, we’ll submit a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and start the formal Rulemaking process which will include official Oral Proceedings. From there- we’ll finalize the new regulations. We think we’ll be able to work through the process and establish the modified rules by early 2015.
Really time for new rules! Time for a new AZDHS Director!
Mr. Humble you really are going to win an award for your chutzpah in promoting NEW RULES! The only thing dude…. your new rules are as bad as the old rules. You obviously are on thin ice with the powers that be and once the truth gets out about your nasty trick in the last round of denials for adding PTSD that your days are numbered. Enjoy your little fiefdom while it lasts and one day the truth will set us all free and you will look really nice in an orange jump suit at your arraignment for your criminal behavior in trying to complete ruin a once promising program.
You sir are a disaster of epic proportions.
Enjoy your day now!
Mr. Humble, I posted this comment this morning. Since you have posted a comment that came much latter than mine I guess you must have lost my comment. So here it is again. Please respond.
1. Arizona was vindicated for having the wisdom to issue the first “Marijuana Tax Stamps” in 1983 and approving medical marijuana use in 1996
2. Voters saw the human destruction of Marijuana Prohibition over 30 years ago. We should all be pleased and proud that Arizona’s citizens were first to speak up against prohibiting the cultivation and use of this ancient source of food, fuel, fiber and medicine.
3. Unfortunately our elected public officials were not proud or pleased with the intent and will of the electorate in 1996 or 2010.
4. Arizona lawmakers nullified the medical marijuana law in 1996 by refusing to protect citizens from criminal prosecution.
5. However, a blatant disregard for 65% of the electorate forced citizens to battle and bypass elected officials again to create “The Arizona Voter Protection Act” (“AVPA”) in 1998.
6. 1996 marked the beginning of an era of citizen initiated actions to reform and protect us from an anti-electorate culture within our own government.
7. Cliff Vandell started Arizona’s Office of Administrative Hearings in 1996 and has served 18 years in that position. Before that Cliff Vandell trained “Drug Recognition Experts” on how to identify and arrest medical marijuana patients.
8. Will Humble served his last 20 years with the Department of Health Services and his opposition to cultivation and use of marijuana is well documented also.
9. In 1996 I was qualified as an expert on grading large quantities of marijuana for quality, safety and mold (ironically) by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency. My qualifications were accepted and affirmed by a seated jury and federal judge.
10. 1996 was the year I contracted Hepatitis C while serving an 8-year sentence in the custody of the United States Department of Justice.
11. I ran for Vice-President of the United States from Safford Federal Prison in 1996. Dennis Peron was my running mate who admirably helped pen and pass Proposition 215 that same year. Prop 215 is still in effect and set the stage for marijuana prohibition reform across the nation.
12. We are gathered here today with our different backgrounds and glaring conflicts of interest because in 2010 Arizona’s “electorate” decriminalized the cultivation and use of marijuana for “two” distinct reasons.
13. The primary intent of the electorate was to reduce the criminal damage of cultivation, possession and use of marijuana. The secondary intention of the electorate was to make marijuana available for medical use.
14. Both the first and second priority of the electorate was based on 5,000 years of naturally cultivated cannabis history and the statistic that 99% of the damage caused by marijuana prohibition is a result of arrests and prosecutions that are still being made by the States and not the United States.
15. Arizona Law Enforcement still jeopardizes public safety and squanders valuable resources by forcing marijuana cultivation and U.S. cash into Mexico in exchange for medical marijuana, crime, violence and judicial chaos.
16. Arizona’s harsh cultivation penalties and property seizure practices created a violent multi-billion dollar a year illegal industry across our border and created this dangerous underground artificial cultivation and synthetic marijuana substitute market in the United States today.
17. Seizures of property, illegal profits and marijuana for resale in reverse sting operations has created a powerful Policing for Profit Industry and a daily death trap for innocent Arizona citizens.
18. Since the passage of the AMMA in 2010 the price of marijuana in Arizona has soared to the highest heap in human history. It takes no large leap of faith to see how ADHS rules protect artificial cultivation and the Mexican marijuana market. Since 2010 Arizona moved from the cheapest marijuana in the United States to the most expensive “designer dope” on earth.
19. Both the Arizona electorate and the ADHS realize that cultivation of cannabis is the golden cash cow. Cannabis cultivation is the key to controlling the violence, crime, corruption and the judicial chaos caused in this political power struggle for pot price protections and profits.
19. Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, Judge Thomas Shedden, Judge Randall, Judge Richard Gama and Judge Katherine Cooper addressed several issues raised in my appeal.
20. I have similar issues with a slightly different set of circumstances that have already been ruled on. However, the ADHS is still trying to cherry pick the “Intent of the Electorate” versus the ADHS failure to implement the AMMA program in a safe, legal, timely and meaningful manner.
This was submitted to Will Humble’s AZDHS Blog this morning by Arlin Troutt and his comment was passed over. Please publish Arlin’s comment so others may know what’s really going on with the medical marijuana program.
1. Arizona was vindicated for having the wisdom to issue the first “Marijuana Tax Stamps” in 1983 and approving medical marijuana use in 1996
2. Voters saw the human destruction of Marijuana Prohibition over 30 years ago. We should all be pleased and proud that Arizona’s citizens were first to speak up against prohibiting the cultivation and use of this ancient source of food, fuel, fiber and medicine.
3. Unfortunately our elected public officials were not proud or pleased with the intent and will of the electorate in 1996 or 2010.
4. Arizona lawmakers nullified the medical marijuana law in 1996 by refusing to protect citizens from criminal prosecution.
5. However, a blatant disregard for 65% of the electorate forced citizens to battle and bypass elected officials again to create “The Arizona Voter Protection Act” (“AVPA”) in 1998.
6. 1996 marked the beginning of an era of citizen initiated actions to reform and protect us from an anti-electorate culture within our own government.
7. Cliff Vandell started Arizona’s Office of Administrative Hearings in 1996 and has served 18 years in that position. Before that Cliff Vandell trained “Drug Recognition Experts” on how to identify and arrest medical marijuana patients.
8. Will Humble served his last 20 years with the Department of Health Services and his opposition to cultivation and use of marijuana is well documented also.
9. In 1996 I was qualified as an expert on grading large quantities of marijuana for quality, safety and mold (ironically) by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency. My qualifications were accepted and affirmed by a seated jury and federal judge.
10. 1996 was the year I contracted Hepatitis C while serving an 8-year sentence in the custody of the United States Department of Justice.
11. I ran for Vice-President of the United States from Safford Federal Prison in 1996. Dennis Peron was my running mate who admirably helped pen and pass Proposition 215 that same year. Prop 215 is still in effect and set the stage for marijuana prohibition reform across the nation.
12. We are gathered here today with our different backgrounds and glaring conflicts of interest because in 2010 Arizona’s “electorate” decriminalized the cultivation and use of marijuana for “two” distinct reasons.
13. The primary intent of the electorate was to reduce the criminal damage of cultivation, possession and use of marijuana. The secondary intention of the electorate was to make marijuana available for medical use.
14. Both the first and second priority of the electorate was based on 5,000 years of naturally cultivated cannabis history and the statistic that 99% of the damage caused by marijuana prohibition is a result of arrests and prosecutions that are still being made by the States and not the United States.
15. Arizona Law Enforcement still jeopardizes public safety and squanders valuable resources by forcing marijuana cultivation and U.S. cash into Mexico in exchange for medical marijuana, crime, violence and judicial chaos.
16. Arizona’s harsh cultivation penalties and property seizure practices created a violent multi-billion dollar a year illegal industry across our border and created this dangerous underground artificial cultivation and synthetic marijuana substitute market in the United States today.
17. Seizures of property, illegal profits and marijuana for resale in reverse sting operations has created a powerful Policing for Profit Industry and a daily death trap for innocent Arizona citizens.
18. Since the passage of the AMMA in 2010 the price of marijuana in Arizona has soared to the highest heap in human history. It takes no large leap of faith to see how ADHS rules protect artificial cultivation and the Mexican marijuana market. Since 2010 Arizona moved from the cheapest marijuana in the United States to the most expensive “designer dope” on earth.
19. Both the Arizona electorate and the ADHS realize that cultivation of cannabis is the golden cash cow. Cannabis cultivation is the key to controlling the violence, crime, corruption and the judicial chaos caused in this political power struggle for pot price protections and profits.
19. Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, Judge Thomas Shedden, Judge Randall, Judge Richard Gama and Judge Katherine Cooper addressed several issues raised in my appeal.
20. I have similar issues with a slightly different set of circumstances that have already been ruled on. However, the ADHS is still trying to cherry pick the “Intent of the Electorate” versus the ADHS failure to implement the AMMA program in a safe, legal, timely and meaningful manner.
So when did this happen and how did it go? I haven’t heard a SINGLE word from a SINGLE patient saying they were or know of any patient involved ?!?!
“Over the coming weeks, we’ll be meeting with a stakeholder group consisting of patients, dispensary representatives, and folks from cities and towns to help us build our Final Draft Rules for Public Comment.”
While you are making regulation changes to AMMA please keep in mind this law is intended to be a compassionate law, aiding some of our most vulnerable population. Chronic illnesses are chronic, meaning they are long term, persistent conditions. AZDHS should consider chronic medical conditions as a reason to extend a MMJ card’s validity for greater than a year. Recommend extending registration to 2 years for patients with chronic medical conditions they have had for over 3 years. This would relieve patients from having the extra monetary burden of annual registration.