Homeless in Arizona

Tom Dean the lawyer quoted in it, is the guy who probably had me kicked off of the Safer Arizona board of directors.

Tom Dean is also the guy who gutted the Safer Arizona initiative and added numerous victimless marijuana crimes to it.

When me, Sergeant David Stephen Wisniewski and Alex Gentry wrote the initial version of the Safer Arizona initiative it was 100% legalization of marijuana with two exceptions

1) we added an age limit of 21, and

2) we let them slap a small sales tax on marijuana.

Once marijuana criminal defense attorney Tom Dean got involved, he gutted the initiative and added numerous marijuana crimes.

Tom Dean is a real nice guy. But he also seems like a hypocrite who wants to keep marijuana as illegal as possible because it makes his wallet fat.

Now the article and some of the snide comments I made about it when I posted it on other places.

Sounds like you almost need a PhD in math to calculate how much medical marijuana you are allowed.

Prop 203 or Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act clearly says 2 and 1/2 ounces

ARS 36-2801

1. “ALLOWABLE AMOUNT OF MARIJUANA”

(a) WITH RESPECT TO A QUALIFYING PATIENT, THE “ALLOWABLE AMOUNT OF MARIJUANA” MEANS:

(i sic) TWO-AND-ONE-HALF OUNCES OF USABLE MARIJUANA; AND

It doesn't get into any complicate gyrations that say 1.4 grams of hashish is equivalent to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. Or 1.1 grams of marijuana concentrates is equivalent to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. It says 2.5 ounces. Period.

And remember Prop 203 was written by a bunch of businessmen who wrote it to give themselves a government monopoly on growing and selling medical marijuana so they could become millionaires.

I'm sure the intent of Andrew Myers, Kathy Inman and the gang was to let you buy 2.5 ounces of anything they sell. Not some silly fraction percent based on the THC content of 2.5 ounces of flowers.

If you ask me it sounds like the members of the Arizona Supreme Court were smoking crack when they made that rubbish up.

Source

NORML In Arizona Blog News & Updates

01 Jul 2019

Tom Dean Warns, “Jones Case WILL Affect Concentrate Allotments”

BY ALLISON STEIN

Oh, the walk of shame!

You know, when you leave the dispensary without everything you’d planned to purchase or worse – you couldn’t get any medicine at all? You’ve maxed out your 2.5 oz. allotment within a two-week cycle. Maybe it hasn’t happened to you, but it’s about to become an issue.

As you may recall on May 28th, 2019, the Arizona Supreme Court determined concentrates are covered by AMMA. That’s the good news. The bad news is the idea that one gram of flower is the same as one gram of concentrate is not going to be the same.

Now that the dust is settling , what the new law actually says is that you can purchase the amount of concentrate that is the equivalent of 2.5 oz. of dry flower ONLY. Keeping track of your allotment might be a little harder now with the Justices understanding that it takes more flower to make a small amount of concentrate, according to the new law. Doing the Math

Keep in mind your 2.5 oz. allotment does not have a start, stop or reset day. Instead it’s a 14-day cycle, meaning; what you purchase today will be available again in 14 days. As of right now, if you purchased an 8th (3.5 grams) of flower and half of a gram of shatter, only 4 grams will be subtracted from your remaining allotment.

Now it’s speculated that the same 4 grams might count as double on your allotment and that may mean that patients will leave dispensaries without their needed medicine, some possibly in tears.

Some patients might use a gram to a gram and a half a day of RSO (Rick Simpson Oil) to treat their cancer and other ailments such as chronic pain. Those patients could be stuck turning to the black market when their allotment runs out. “Ambiguity”

Tom Dean, a criminal cannabis attorney, who serves as AZ-NORML legal counsel and vice president of the ACBA (Arizona Cannabis Bar Association), thinks there is a lot of “ambiguity” in the Supreme Court ruling on the Jones Case and AMMA. In a phone conversation, Dean mentioned that the Supreme Court ruling said, “all parts of the plant are covered by AMMA,” and, that concentrates allotments are supposed to be measured based on the 2.5 oz. of dry flower it takes to make them. [I worked with Tom Dean at Safer Arizona. When me, Sergeant David Stephen Wisniewski and Alex Gentry wrote the initial Safer Arizona initiative it legalized marijuana 100% with 2 minor exceptions 1) an age limit of 21 and 2) a simple sales tax. Once marijuana criminal defense attorney Tom Dean got involved in writing the Safer Arizona initiative he gutted the initiative and added numerous marijuana crimes. I suspect Tom Dean was responsible for having me kicked off of the Safer Arizona board of directors for my position of wanting 100% legalization of marijuana. The original Safer Arizona that me, Alex and Dave wrote contained must of the original RAD initiative. In fact the final Safer Arizona initiative even after Tom Dean gutted it contained must of the RAD initiative]

When questioned about patients seeking medicine from the black market, he did point out that the court and AMMA do not restrict patients from making their own concentrate. Until this loophole is taken to trial, it might remain another “gray area”.

According to Dean, “If it is taken to court, there is a good chance of winning due to defense rural indemnity. If it sounds like a big attorney phrase well, it is. It means if that ‘ambiguity’ in the law the law that the court should side with the defense.”

Mikel Weisser, the state director of the Arizona state chapter of NORML, spoke at the law seminar on Wednesday, June 26, in a presentation given by the Arizona Cannabis Bar Association as part of the Arizona Bar Association annual legal conference. In his brief speech, Weisser mentioned that the recent testing bill SB1494, which takes effect in November 2020, opened up the cannabis products to being regulated by AZDHS and this will affect the lives of patients and industry.

Up until now AZDHS has essentially taken a “hands off” to regulating the medical marijuana program. The loosely operated AZDHS medical marijuana program will now have a testing board/committee that will handle testing and other health and safety concerns including those brought up by the Supreme Court ruling of concentrates allotments.

The New Advisory Board’s New Huge Mess

Right now, it’s estimated that concentrates allotments could be adjusted based on conversion ratios. Among the formulas that have been batted around are 6.7 to 1 down to 3 to 1, meaning every gram of concentrate would equal somewhere between 3 to 6.7 grams of flower out of the 70 grams allotted every two weeks. [OK, what part of Prop 203 gives all these silly ratios? What it doesn't give the ratios in Prop 203? Hmmm ... Were the Arizona Supreme Court justices smoking crack when they read that imaginary part of Prop 203? Again, I think the Arizona Supreme Court judges were smoking crack when they wrote that silly ruling]

That would mean 70 grams of flower would equal to 10 grams of concentrate per 2-week cycle, and not 2.5 oz. Both industry lobbyists and patient advocates are pressing for the lowest ratio possible. Keep in mind it can take as much as 28 grams of flower to make one gram of RSO. The math problem required will equal a huge mess for the new AZDHS testing board.

Confusion over differing amounts of how much flower, trim or kief it takes to make 1 gram of concentrates is part of the problem. It’s because there really hasn’t a set standard used in AZ, due to so many variables in plant strains and production method.

Until the smoke clears it’s recommended that you keep track on your allotment and as always keep your receipts. We will keep you posted on this concentrate chaos.

–Scottsdale native, Allison Stein, writes for the Arizona Cannabis Monthly.