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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, First Regular Session
medical marijuana; mental health; research
Purpose
Subject to voter approval, statutorily transfers $2 million from the Medical Marijuana Fund (Fund) to the Department of Health Services (DHS) to provide research grants. Directs DHS to affix prescribed warning labels on medical marijuana packaging.
Background
In 2010, Arizona voters approved the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA) to establish a regulatory system, overseen by DHS, that allows a nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary (dispensary) to dispense a permissible amount of medical marijuana to a qualifying patient or the qualifying patient's designated caregiver (A.R.S. § 36-2801).
DHS administers the Fund
which consists of application and renewal fees from dispensaries, civil
penalties and private donations received pursuant to the AMMA. The Director of
DHS is authorized to accept and spend private gifts, donations, contributions
and devises to assist in carrying out the requirements of the AMMA. Fund monies
are continuously appropriated and do not revert to the state General Fund at
the end of a fiscal year. According to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee,
the year-end Fund balance in FY 2020 was $92,503,800 (A.R.S.
§ 36-2817; JLBC
Baseline).
H.C.R. 2024 transfers $2 million from the Fund to DHS to provide research grants.
Provisions
1. Requires DHS to develop warning labels based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Surgeon General's warnings on marijuana.
2. Directs DHS to require the labels to be affixed to the packaging of any medical marijuana dispensed by a dispensary to a qualified patient or designated caregiver.
3. Directs DHS to provide grants from monies in the Fund for meta-analyses on the correlation between marijuana use and mental illness, including psychosis and violent behavior.
4. Requires the Director of DHS to transfer $2 million from the Fund to DHS to provide grants for marijuana research studies.
5. Exempts the provided research grants from statutes related to the solicitation and award of grants.
6. Requires DHS to post all research conducted pursuant to grants provided on its website.
7. Makes technical changes.
8. Requires the Secretary of State to submit the proposition to the voters at the next general election.
9. Becomes effective if approved by the voters and on proclamation of the Governor.
House Action
HHS 2/15/21 DP 5-2-2-0
3rd Read 3/3/21 44-16-0
Prepared by Senate Research
March 15, 2021
CRS/JP/kja