# Medical Marijuana Implementation in the State of Arizona

I wouldn't be considered a good attorney unless I prefaced this informative article with a couple of disclaimers: 1) Marijuana continues to be a controlled schedule I substance and is illegal in the eyes of the Federal Government of the United States; 2) This information is not to be construed as legal counsel, nor is designed to take the area of the advice of an attorney, and you need to consult with an attorney before taking any actions in furtherance of the subject matter with this article. Ok, let's begin.

In the month of November, the State of Arizona passed Proposition 203, which would exempt certain individuals from controlled substances laws in the State of Arizona. However, it'll still take a moment before medical marijuana is implemented as policy in Arizona. The Arizona Department of Health Services has released a proposed timeline for the drafting of the guidelines surrounding the implementation of Proposition 203. To date, they are the important time periods that ought to be paid close focus on:

December 17, 2010: The very first draft of the medical marijuana rules should really be released and made designed for comment with this date.

January 7, 2011: This could be the deadline for public comment on the first draft of rules mentioned above.

January 31, 2011: The second draft of the guidelines is going to be released with this date. Once again, it is going to be designed for informal comment as in the draft referred to above.

February 21 to March 18, 2011: More formal public hearings is going to be held concerning the proposed rules currently, after which it the ultimate rules is going to be submitted to the Secretary of State and made public on the Office of Administrative Rules website.

April 2011: The medical san [Francisco dispensary delivery](https://lakesideremedy.com/) rules will go into effect and be published in the Arizona Administrative Register.

It is very important that all the time through the consultation process, interested parties submit briefs and/or make oral presentations when permitted. Groups with interests unlike those of medical marijuana advocates are often making presentations, and may convince the State to unnecessarily restrict the substance or those that may qualify to access it if you have no voice to advocate and only patients' rights.

Some key points about Proposition 203's effects

-Physicians may prescribe medical marijuana because of their patients under certain conditions. "Physician" isn't defined in a way limited to normal medical doctors. Osteopaths licensed under Title 32, Chapter 17; naturopaths licensed under Title 32, Chapter 14; and homeopaths licensed under Title 32, Chapter 29 may all be eligible to recommend marijuana because of their patients.

-In order to be prescribed medical marijuana, an individual must be a "qualifying patient." A qualifying patient is defined as somebody who has been diagnosed with a "physician" (as defined above) as having a "debilitating medical condition."

-Debilitating medical conditions include:
• Cancer, glaucoma, HIV positive status, AIDS, hepatitis C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Crohn's disease, or agitation of Alzheimer's disease or treating these conditions.
• A chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that creates more than one of the following: Cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe and chronic pain; severe nausea; seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy; or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.
• Any medical condition or its treatment added by the Department of Health Services pursuant to Section 36-2801.01.

This last qualifying condition is underlined because it's vitally important during the rulemaking process. Although Proposition 203 enables people to petition the Department of Health Services to exercise its discretion to incorporate conditions under this section, bureaucracy is notoriously difficult to get at change any law. The original discretionary rules for additional treatments could be exercised during people consultations that occur between December and March, though this isn't certain.

It is therefore important that, in the case that the addition of medical conditions is recognized as during the consultations, any stakeholder who wishes for a condition not listed in the first two bulleted items above to lobby during people consultation periods for the Department to incorporate the extra medical condition to the list of debilitating medical conditions. In order to boost the prestige of any presentations designed to justify adding medical conditions under Section 36-2801.01, it may be helpful to solicit the testimony of sympathetic Arizona-licensed medical doctors who are able to testify written down and at people hearings about why the proposed condition should really be added. Documents showing that other jurisdictions, both in the United States and elsewhere, currently use marijuana as a treatment for the proposed condition may be helpful, as would medical journals on the subject.