FAQ #5: Will there be regulation of dispensaries?

QUESTION: If Prop 203 passes, the Arizona Department of Health Services will be regulating marijuana dispensaries and marijuana will be safer, right?

ANSWER: No.  The Arizona Department of Health Services will serve in merely an administrative capacity with no real control over the dispensaries themselves and no control whatsoever over the marijuana sold.

Based on very limited requirements, the Arizona Department of Health Services will issue marijuana cards to marijuana “patients” and “caregivers” and licenses to “dispensaries.”  Criminals, even certain felons, can be caregivers or dispensary owners and agents.

State officials can’t inspect dispensaries unless prior warning is given.  And, State officials have no authority to inspect the marijuana itself.  The marijuana can be full of pesticides, fungicides, molds, or other components and additives.  In contrast, State officials can inspect McDonalds and the food itself without warning of any kind and they’re just selling hamburgers!

Marijuana dispensaries can be located as close as 500 feet from schools.  There is no restriction on distance from parks and other places children congregate.  Dispensaries will bring increased crime to your neighborhoods, including drug trafficking and all of the seedy activities that go along with it.  Don’t get comfortable with the Marijuana Policy Project’s claims of regulation by State officials.  There will be no meaningful regulation of dispensaries!