While Arizona voted to legalize recreational marijuana this November, there is currently nowhere Arizonians can buy the plant from.
Under Proposition 207, anyone 21 or older is allowed to have up to 1 ounce of cannabis in the state. A 16% tax on its sale will fund community colleges, public safety, public health programs and roads and highways.
Arizonans can expect to see dispensaries begin to sell recreational marijuana as early as March.
The Department of Health Services must first issue licenses to sell, according to marijuana lawyer Tom Dean.
“Those licenses will be given to all of the existing medical marijuana dispensaries first,” Dean told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad recently.
“Those licenses will be issued around the end of March. Then, there are an additional 26 social equity licenses that will be issued at some point later in 2021.
“People will be eligible for one of those types of licenses if they are a member of a community that has been disproportionally impacted by the enforcement of marijuana laws in the past. So perhaps certain ethnic minorities or perhaps certain socioeconomic categories. We don’t know what those criteria exactly will be yet,” he added.
Dean says it important to strictly follow the limitations put forth in the law. “You don’t want to go over that amount because if you go over it enough, you’re going to get kicked back into the criminal code which is pretty harsh as many marijuana consumers out there know,” he explained.
“Make sure that you’re following those limitations and avoid the temptation to do more than you’re allowed,” Dean also said.
“If you’re employed by someone who has drug testing, there are no protections in 207. If you test positive for THC at work, you can be fired for that,” Dean additioanlly warned. “If you’re a medical marijuana patient, however, you cannot. There’s very strong protections.”
