This text was initially printed on The Cannabis Community and seems right here with permission.
Whether or not you’re new to the state of Arizona or new to medical hashish, it’s sensible of you to take a look at the legality of a medication you’re contemplating consuming. In spite of everything, in an excellent world, you need to have the ability to overtly talk about along with your physician any and all medicines you’re consuming as a way to mitigate any potential unfavourable drug interactions.
So does Arizona have medical hashish? What about adult-use hashish? How do you get your palms on it and what do you’ll want to know in regards to the related legal guidelines?
Medical Hashish
Medical hashish has been authorized in Arizona since 2010, when voters supported Proposition 203, which established the Arizona Medical Marijuana Statute Act (AMMA). The Act entrusts the regulation of medical marijuana to the Arizona Division of Well being Providers (AZDHS).
Proposition 203 permits a qualifying affected person with a debilitating medical situation to acquire a certain quantity of marijuana from a not-for-profit medical marijuana dispensary, possess the marijuana, and use it to deal with or alleviate the debilitating medical situation or the signs related to the situation.
The Arizona Division of Well being Providers (AZDHS) is required to ascertain and implement a regulatory system for medical marijuana distribution, together with a system for approving, renewing, and revoking the registration of qualifying sufferers, designated caregivers, and nonprofit dispensaries, and dispensary brokers. The regulatory system’s prices needs to be lined by software and renewal charges, civil penalties, and personal donations obtained because of this proposal.
Sufferers will need to have legitimate, unexpired medical marijuana playing cards earlier than they could use marijuana for medical functions moderately than recreationally.
Leisure Hashish
Leisure marijuana was additionally legalized in Arizona in 2020 when voters accepted Proposition 207, often known as the “Good and Protected Arizona Act.”
Below Arizona’s new leisure use laws, it’s nonetheless illegal for anyone beneath the age of 21 to own or devour marijuana. Distributing marijuana to a juvenile is likewise prohibited, simply as giving alcohol to somebody beneath the age of 21 is.
Leisure customers may also legally possess 1 ounce (about 28.35 grams) of marijuana. 5 grams from that 1 ounce will be marijuana focus, which is resin taken from the marijuana plant, comparable to THC focus within the type of wax or oil to be used in a vape pen.
This new legislation doesn’t prohibit your employer’s duty to maintain your office drug- and alcohol-free. An employer, similar to with alcohol, would possibly forbid you from consuming marijuana at work. This additionally makes no adjustments to Arizona’s DUI statutes. Nevertheless, the prosecution should show that you just had been driving impaired for having THC in your system to be convicted of a DUI. Using marijuana in “a public place or open space” is prohibited beneath Arizona’s leisure marijuana legislation, so be cautious the place you devour marijuana. It’s not a good suggestion to do it in public, close to a faculty, or whereas driving.
Arizona has completely different legal guidelines and procedures regarding leisure and medical marijuana, comparable to age and amount limits, in addition to the tactic of buy, sale, possession, and use.
Who can Acquire a Medical Hashish Card in Arizona?
Qualifying Sufferers
Residents can at any age, together with as a minor, grow to be an Arizona medical hashish affected person. To validate the affected person’s age and Arizona residency, they have to embrace a sound Arizona state driver’s license or ID card with their software. Sufferers beneath the age of 18 will need to have a caregiver appointed by their custodial father or mother or authorized guardian. A caregiver just isn’t required for grownup sufferers.
Grownup sufferers and sufferers beneath the age of 18 have completely different qualification necessities. Kindly refer to those checklists to see different paperwork wanted when making use of as a qualifying affected person:
- Grownup Sufferers
- Sufferers Below the Age of 18
Qualifying Well being Situations
Sufferers have to be identified with a minimum of one of many following qualifying situations to be eligible to obtain a medical marijuana card:
- Submit Traumatic Stress Dysfunction
- Most cancers
- Glaucoma
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
- Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
- Hepatitis C
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
- Crohn’s Illness
- Agitation of Alzheimer’s illness
- A continual or debilitating illness or medical situation or the therapy for a continual or debilitating illness or medical situation that causes:
- Cachexia or losing syndrome;
- Extreme and continual ache;
- Extreme nausea;
- Seizures, together with these attribute of epilepsy;
- Extreme or persistent muscle spasms, together with these attribute of a number of sclerosis
Arizona residents can request that additional situations be added to the listing of debilitating medical issues beneath state laws.
Acquire a Medical Hashish Card in Arizona?
Doctor Suggestion
A qualifying affected person who has been identified with one of many debilitating medical situations listed above should acquire written certification from an Arizona-licensed doctor (medical physician, osteopath, naturopath, or homeopath). The written certification have to be created inside 90 days previous to submitting an software for a registration identification card, on a kind offered by AZDHS. After receiving the doctor’s written certification, the qualifying affected person can apply for a registry identification card on-line.
If the certified affected person is beneath the age of 18, a reviewing certification kind from a unique doctor is critical along with the Doctor Certification Type above. The reviewing doctor should study the qualifying affected person’s medical data and supply a suggestion for medical marijuana.
Caregiver
Caregivers assist sufferers management their acquisition, dosage, and use of medical hashish.
A caregiver have to be chosen by the certified affected person that they are going to be serving. If the affected person is beneath the age of 18, the caregiver have to be a minimum of a father or mother or authorized guardian of the affected person. Caregivers have to be 18 or older and will have a sound Arizona driver’s license or state identification card to ascertain residency.
After the affected person has accomplished their on-line software and has been accepted by AZDHS, the caregiver should additionally apply by means of the AZDHS on-line system. Earlier than making an attempt to finish the web software, the caregiver ought to fastidiously assessment the appliance guidelines offered by AZDHS.
Charges
An preliminary or renewal AZ MMJ card prices $150 for qualifying sufferers who don’t qualify for a reduction. An preliminary or renewal AZ MMJ card is $75 for SNAP (Supplemental Vitamin Help Program) members. A brand new or renewed AZ MMJ Caregiver card prices $200, and updating or amending an current AZ MMJ card prices $10.
After finishing the appliance process, AZDHS will e mail a affected person their medicinal marijuana card inside 10 days. In Arizona, all medical marijuana playing cards are digital. It may be saved on a smartphone, pill, or different cell machine and introduced to any licensed dispensary or legislation enforcement official in Arizona to show that the affected person is registered.
Shopping for Medical Hashish
A medical marijuana cardholder could buy as much as 2 1/2 ounces of medicinal hashish each two weeks with an AZ MMJ card, with not more than 12 1/2 grams within the type of hashish focus. The possession of greater than this quantity of marijuana at any given time is a petty crime in Arizona, no matter whether or not you might have a medicinal marijuana license or not.
Sufferers who use medical marijuana pay simply state and native taxes and aren’t topic to any excise taxes. This quantities to round 8% in taxes for medical marijuana purchases at present tax charges.
Cultivating Medical Hashish
Below present Arizona laws, a medical hashish cardholder can solely produce their very own hashish in the event that they meet the 2 following situations:
- in the event that they stay greater than 25 miles from a dispensary (medicinal marijuana sufferers can develop as much as 12 crops on their very own).
- crops have to be grown in an “enclosed, closed constructing,” which is described as a cupboard, a room, greenhouse, or different enclosed space fitted with locks or security mechanisms that may solely be accessed by a cardholder.
In each cases, the AZ MMJ holder should even be recognized as a medicinal marijuana grower by the AZDHS.
Medical marijuana can be grown by AZDHS-designated caregivers. Caregivers have to be a minimum of 21 years previous, should agree to help as much as 5 sufferers with medical marijuana, and will need to have no prior drug felonies.
Do Different States’ Medical Hashish Playing cards Work in Arizona?
A visiting qualifying affected person who has a medical marijuana card or its equal issued by his/her residence state is allowed to own and use marijuana beneath the state legislation of Arizona. Nevertheless, the visiting affected person just isn’t permitted to buy marijuana from a dispensary, since dispensaries are required by legislation to use a verification mechanism earlier than allotting marijuana.
What Are the Legal guidelines on Utilizing Medical Hashish in Arizona?
In Arizona, it’s unlawful to make use of any kind or type of marijuana in a public location, even when you’ve got a sound medical marijuana card. Sufferers can solely smoke medical marijuana in a non-public setting. Sufferers can’t smoke medical marijuana in a faculty, enterprise, or different location the place smoking tobacco is prohibited.
Medical marijuana sufferers in Arizona have important authorized rights in opposition to discrimination by employers. Arizona firms are allowed to keep up a “drug-free office” and impose guidelines in help of that goal, comparable to necessary drug testing, however aren’t allowed to use these legal guidelines unequally to all workers. Below Arizona state legislation, no college, landlord, or employer will be penalized or denied advantages for enrolling, leasing, or hiring a registered certified affected person or a registered designated caregiver.
The Arizona Supreme Courtroom has dominated that solely impaired drivers will be charged with driving beneath the affect of medical marijuana. Non-psychoactive hashish parts like CBD, in addition to inactive hashish metabolites, don’t set up impairment, and subsequently can’t be used as grounds for detention or automobile search of a person.
Arizona state legislation additionally dictates that simply because an individual applies for or obtains a registered Medical Hashish card, it doesn’t imply that legislation enforcement has possible trigger or cheap suspicion to look that individual or their property. Nevertheless, this doesn’t preclude an individual or their property from being searched. A search could also be carried out if legislation enforcement has possible trigger.