We have a court hearing on Friday morning (May 31, 2013) in which the Plaintiffs are asking for a Temporary Restraining Order delaying at least the June 7 deadline for submitting their application for an Approval to Operate.  Ultimately, they’re looking to extend our final deadline for actually getting their Approval to Operate past our August 7 deadline (after which their Registration Certificate expires). 

BTW…  We have about 20 or so dispensaries already up and running across the state and another dozen or so have already filed their request for an Approval to Operate.  Also, you can see links to the other 12 lawsuits that have been filed on our website.

On the Dispensary side of the house…  16 dispensaries are approved to operate in AZ, and another 13 have turned in their paperwork asking for an opening inspection.  All 98 of the applicants that received Registration Certificates last Summer have until August 7^th to complete all of our requirements and earn their operating license- because all of the certificates expire on that day.   Also, June 7 is the deadline for prospective dispensaries to turn in their Approval to Operate application.

By the way, the state computer system will be down for maintenance this Saturday 4/20 and there may be intermittent service, but things should be back on-line Sunday.

Our Vital Records team has been keeping data on birth and death certificates since 1855.  A few years ago, our easy to use Genealogy website was put together so folks can do research on their family history.   The data on the site includes AZ births before 1938 and deaths before 1963.  The public records statute says that birth certificates need to be at least 75 years old and death certificates 50 years ago in order to be loaded on the site.  The information was extracted from photo reproductions of the original certificates by volunteers from the Mesa Regional Family History Center.

We don’t have a budget top maintain the site… but we recently put up a feature so that folks can donate funds to the ADHS Public Genealogy Website for future enhancements.

The AZ Medical Marijuana Act requires us to periodically accept petitions to add new medical conditions- and we are once again accepting petitions to add new debilitating medical conditions this week (January 25 – 31) on our petition website. Our medical team will meet after January 31^st and will be providing me with an initial analysis regarding whether any petitions we receive meet the screening criteria…  and we’ll be using the UA College of Public Health to review the scientific literature for any that pass the screening test.  Assuming we receive qualified petitions, I’ll need to make a final decision by July 2013.  Our website shows folks how, what, where, and when to submit petitions.

From the beginning, we’ve been monitoring the types and numbers of certifications written by physicians.  Our Annual Report included an analysis of the kinds of certifications that have been coming in as well as the number of certifications by a physician.  In short- the Report made it clear that we needed some educational opportunities for all classes of physicians.  That day has come.  

We’ve collaborated with the U of A’s Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health to develop a 5-hour free online Certified Medical Education course regarding the physician’s role and expectations under AZ Medical Marijuana program. It’s available on our website at: www.azdhs.gov/medicalmarijuana/physicians/.  We also asked the 4 Medical Boards to promote the course.  Over time, we’re expecting this physician education to help us get better results when it comes to the certifications.

By the way- AZ now has 3 operating dispensaries, one in Glendale and one in Tucson.  Another dispensary in Cochise County opened today.  Because of the 3 operating dispensaries and provision in the voter approved language that only people that live more than 25 miles away from a dispensary are authorized to cultivate, more than 70% of Arizonans now live in areas where self-cultivation will no longer be permitted.  However, we’re grandfathering the cultivation rights for current card-holders until they renew their card or move into an area that’s within 25 miles of a dispensary.

A Superior Court judge ruled today in the dispensary case concerning the applicant in the Sun City CHAA.  The judge ordered the county to begin processing the required zoning paperwork.  This was the only application for this area,  so the next step for the applicant is to submit to us a completed application including  the zoning paperwork from the county.   The Department will process this application the same as the other 98 applications.

Once the new dispensary begins its operations, we will no longer be approving “requests to cultivate” among new (and renewing) cardholders in most of the metro area… because self-grow (12 plants) is only allowed when the patient lives more than 25 miles from the nearest operating dispensary according to the law.  The vast majority of the Valley is within 25 miles of this new (but not yet operating) dispensary. 

As an FYI…  once a dispensary is operating, it is required by our rules to be “…  operating and available to dispense medical marijuana to qualifying patients and designated caregivers at least 30 hours weekly between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.”

The fact that a dispensary is now licensed in the Valley also means that the “self-grow” part of the law will change on Friday.  Beginning tomorrow we’ll be declining new “requests to cultivate” among new cardholders in most of the metro area…  because self-grow (12 plants) is only allowed when the patient lives more than 25 miles from the nearest dispensary.  The vast majority of the Valley is within 25 miles of this new dispensary.   

We’re also adding a new feature to our website to help people figure out if they live within 25 miles of a dispensary.  Because of the changes to the system, we’ just took the it offline.  We’ll work on it over the weekend and most of the application process should be up and running on Monday.

Perhaps the most striking thing in the report is that 24 doctors have signed about 80% of the 30,000 or so certifications in Year 1…  and a handful of doctors wrote more than 1,000 certifications.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that these doc’s aren’t acting in the best interests of their patients- but it does give us some insight into which ones we should be focusing on to ensure that they’re meeting our certification expectations.  The report goes into more detail if you’re interested. 

Dr. Cara Christ (our Agency Medical Director) did some outreach this week with the Executive Directors of the 4 medical licensing boards to brainstorm about what we can do as a system to ensure that doctors are truly acting in their patient’s best interests, complying with each licensing board’s expectations, and meeting our standards for certifications.  We’re also looking into doing some more intensive medical education among high frequency certifiers and have signed a contract with the AZ State Board of Pharmacy to help us with surveillance among the certifying physicians.  You can see some of the recommendations at the end of the report. 

Of course…  the info in the Annual Report is just a sub-set of all of the data we have about the program…  and you can see the full array of data and information including our summary monthly reports on our hub website.