The state's first medical marijuana dispensaries could be up, running and selling the drug by mid July.
State Health Director Will Humble announced Tuesday he will not appeal a court ruling invalidating some of the rules he had crafted limiting who can own and operate the shops, including a requirement to be a resident for at least three years. Those rules also gave favorable treatment to applicants who had never declared bankruptcy.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Richard Gama said last week that the 2010 voter-approved initiative creating a medical marijuana system in Arizona did not allow for such restrictions.
Humble said his next step is to recraft the rules to account for the judge's ruling, with applications accepted in mid April. He said that paves the way for a lottery to see who gets each of the estimated 125 dispensary licenses permitted under the law.
He figures that the first dispensaries could open their doors in July.
