Here are some of the changes for 2020:
A licensed laboratory will need to test products from growers and distributors by Nov. 1, 2020.
SB 1494 reads, in part, that dispensaries must test “marijuana and marijuana products for medical use to determine unsafe levels of microbial contamination, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, growth regulators and residual solvents and confirm the potency of the marijuana to be dispensed.”
Mandatory testing for medical marijuana distributed by dispensaries: Starting this year Arizona marijuana dispensaries must have their products tested by a third-party lab for contaminants including pesticides and heavy metals. And caregivers and patients have the right to request the lab’s results.
Joe DeMenna, a member of the council representing medical marijuana patients, says one of his biggest concerns is ” disruption of the supply chain.”
“If these labs can’t get accredited in time, if DHS can’t get everything together in time, that creates a situation where patients may not have access to the medicine that they normally have access to on an ongoing basis,” said Medical Marijuana Testing Advisory Council member Joe DeMenna.
Medical Marijuana cards went electronic on Dec. 1st 2019
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Senate Bill 1494 went into effect August 27, 2019. As a result of this bill, applicants who submit an initial or renewal application for a qualifying patient, designated caregiver, or nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary agent on or after August 27, 2019, that is approved by the Department, will be issued a license that is valid for two years. Renewals for nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary licenses submitted on or after August 27, 2019, if approved by the Department, will also be valid for two years. If you currently have a license, it will still expire on the expiration date printed on the card or license. If you submit an application before August 27, 2019, you will be issued a license that is valid for one year. The Department is not accepting initial applications for nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary licenses at this time.
AZ Senate Republican Sonny Borrelli has big motives for 2020
Borrelli is currently working on getting these cannabis bills in the office
Tucson.com reports, A proposed bill (HB 2049) by state Rep. Diego Espinoza would add opiod use disorder and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to Arizona’s list of medical marijuana
Tucson.com reports, SB 1016 and SB 1017, taken together, are designed to ensure the Department of Revenue has access to certain records of medical marijuana dispensaries.
Separately, SB 1010 would eliminate the requirement in the original 2010 law that state health inspectors give prior notice before checking out medical marijuana dispensaries and processing facilities. Borrelli said that makes no sense, especially when the question is the cleanliness of kitchens.
SB 1015 would maintain the testing requirement for everything from microbial contamination and heavy metals to pesticides, fungicides and residual solvents. But the new language would specifically ban the use of any pesticide at all except for those that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act say are so benign as to not require regulation at all.