all your medical marijuana needs in one place. FEB 17TH– FEB 23RD, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES phoenixnewtimes.com State Licensed Dispensaries & Doctor Certifications | CANNABIS | Watching from p 39 according to Samuel Richard, executive director of the Arizona Dispensaries Asso- ciation. More transparent inspections were codified in Proposition 207, according to Richard. Some Arizona Department of Health Services inspection data can be reviewed at AZ Care Check. Not all issues start at the storefront. Some can arise when those with marijuana licenses depend on subcontractors to han- dle other elements between seed and sale. Those include glitches related to growing or testing, according to Minkin. “Even though you’re subcontracting it out and someone else is running that part of the operation, ultimately it’s the responsi- bility of the licensee,” Minkin said. “When something goes wrong, it’s not the subcon- tractor the state’s going to come after.” Those in the industry have a choice: correct the mistakes or potentially risk losing their license — a highly sought-after ticket to a multibillion-dollar industry. Despite issues that have arisen since the legalization of adult use, the relation- ship between the health department and dispensaries is mostly amicable, according to Richard. “It doesn’t mean that things are easy,” he added. “But what it does mean is that where and when there needs to be...clarifi- cation on a particular rule or how the de- partment is performing it, you know that the regulator is always open and willing to work with us as an industry.”’ Navigating a relatively new, but grow- ing industry doesn’t come without at least a little confusion over the details, from test- ing to the number of plants necessary to run a cultivation site. When medical marijuana first came on the market, testing for pesticides and things like salmonella wasn’t required, according to Jeff Mattura, an Arizona- based attorney who represents several dozen dispensaries, license holders, and cultivators. Mattura is the head of the can- nabis law team at law firm Barrett Matura. “There was no testing to really confirm the quality and safety of that product,” he said. “That was a big gap in the industry.” Eventually, mandatory testing was in- stituted. Testing requirements were also included in Prop. 207. Before adult use entered the Arizona market, dispensaries and their testers were sent scrambling for certifications and supplies to keep up to code as Senate Bill 1494 came into effect, as New Times previously reported. SB 1494 created a new pesticide and contaminant testing system for marijuana establish- ments in the state, among other things. Arizona has “two full chapters in the 40 Arizona administrative code that our oper- ators have to abide by, in addition to two full chapters in Title 36 under the Arizona revised statutes,” Richard said. “We’re always looking for ways to find a balance “UNLIKE CALIFORNIA OR SOME OTHER STATES THAT HAVE REALLY AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF REGULATIONS, IN ARIZONA THE REGULATIONS ARE NOT THAT THICK.” — ATTORNEY JEFF MATTURA between good operating kind of rhythms [and] not compromising at all on public health or safety.” As with testing requirements, the de- partment periodically updates regulations, as well as instituting changes coming from the legislature, such as SB 1494. “When you have a grow operation...you have to have at least one marijuana plant being cultivated at all times. And if you don’t, the state doesn’t like that,” Minkin said. “I couldn’t find it anywhere in the regulations, believe it or not.” Because federal law still classifies mari- juana as a Schedule 1 drug, states are left to regulate the industry, meaning laws vary across the United States where pot has been legalized. “Unlike California or some other states that have really an encyclopedia of regula- tions, in Arizona the regulations are not that thick,” Mattura said. In California, the state established the Department of Cannabis Control by merg- ing three state cannabis programs: the Bureau of Cannabis Control in the Depart- ment of Consumer Affairs, the Manufac- tured Cannabis Safety Branch in the Department of Public Health, and the Cal- Cannabis Cultivation Licensing in the Department of Food and Agriculture. Arizona hasn’t created or consolidated a central regulating agency as California has. The Department of Health Services has taken the lead with such roles as licensing. But the Department of Health Services and Weights and Measures in the Arizona Department of Agriculture, as well as some local jurisdictions, regulate marijuana in this state, according to Richard. But as in Arizona, California regulators also conduct announced and unannounced spot inspections. Lack of regulations can be both good and bad, according to Mattura. While it gives operators and the department in- creased flexibility, it also means that some things, such as certain cultivation rules, go uncovered, Minkin pointed out. Some like Mattura look to other regulated substances — like alcohol and tobacco — to predict the “types of regula- tions, types of oversight, whether it’s taxing issues or legal issues,” Mattura said. “Just as there has been a real change in how tobacco is regulated and labeled...we kind of see that coming with marijuana.” “This is a part of the growing pains,” concluded Minkin.
