By Brian Wright | Casa Grande Dispatch
Three Pinal County supervisors explained their different outlooks that led to Wednesday’s approval of a medical marijuana dispensary just outside the city limits of Maricopa.
Supervisors last month unanimously denied a permit requested for a dispensary in Dudleyville. The supervisors said they didn’t vote against the Dudleyville dispensary because they disapproved of medical marijuana, but because of other factors.
Supervisor Pete Rios, whose district includes Dudleyville, said he voted against the facility there because of its poor location in an area where there had already been many serious traffic accidents; inadequate security of the building; insufficient public notice by the applicant; and overwhelming opposition from area residents.
“The community opposition was there, and I don’t see that in the Maricopa site,” Rios said.
On a 4-1 vote Wednesday, supervisors approved a permit for the Ponderosa Botanical Care dispensary, located about eight miles south of Maricopa in a strip mall on the south side of Papago Road near Raceway Bar and Grill. Supervisor Cheryl Chase of San Tan Valley voted “no.”
In a presentation to the board, attorney Jordan Rose of Rose Law Group, which represented applicant Clary Childers, said the county had received 44 letters of support from area residents and three opposition letters to the Maricopa-area dispensary.
“Whether you voted for the voter-approved law or not, this is the type of medical marijuana dispensary owner you want — somebody who’s very medically inclined,” Rose said. “They’re responsible, and they’ve proven that in another location that they’ve been operating in Oro Valley.”
While there was very little opposition from area residents, one person was vehemently against the dispensary. Thad Stanfield, board chairman of the MASH Coalition, an anti- substance abuse organization, argued it could negatively affect youths looking to purchase medical marijuana from cardholders.
“The amount of youth using marijuana in the MASH (Maricopa, Ak-Chin, Stanfield, Hidden Valley) area is 13 percent; that’s the second-highest percentage in all of Pinal County,” he said. “Please don’t put a dispensary in the middle of the MASH area.”
Supervisor Anthony Smith of Maricopa, a former mayor of that city, said having a safe, secure medical marijuana facility is far better than the current alternative. Any person with a legal medical marijuana card who doesn’t live within a 25-mile radius of a dispensary can grow up to 12 plants for personal use, and the practice is unregulated.
“Having a safe place for people who are cardholders to obtain the product is much preferable to those 326 cardholders growing 12 plants, and the caregivers associated with it, in an uncontrolled environment,” he said.
Rose said the homegrown marijuana operations would come to a halt once the dispensaries are open. She argued it’s a much safer process to have the dispensary in operation.
“That’s an astounding amount of plants – 3,792 plants permitted to be harvested six times a year with no oversight,” she said.
Childers agreed the dispensary is a better option than having hundreds of people in the area growing their own marijuana.
“If they know what they’re doing, they can grow 72 (plants) every 60 days, and that is not controlled,” he said.
Maricopa resident Julie Stanfill sent a letter to the board of supervisors prior to the meeting and expressed concern that some cardholders will still be able to grow marijuana legally even after the dispensary opens.
Supervisor Todd House of Apache Junction said he was “skeptical” of the safety and security of the dispensary until he saw the facility in Oro Valley that Childers runs.
“This is a professional location; it looks like a doctor’s office,” House said. “I feel very confident that this location is going to do everything they say they will.
“We have to have a reason other than ‘I don’t like pot’ to say ‘No, this can’t go through,’ and I’m having a hard time finding a reason why this can’t go through,” House said.
Smith had toured the facility near Maricopa and said he was impressed with the security features, including video cameras, bulletproof glass in the waiting room and a 975-pound safe — where all the marijuana will be stored — bolted to the floor.
“I visited the site, and I visited a similar site in a strip mall in Oro Valley,” Smith said. “I observed the security arrangement, the operational procedures, and I tell you that the amount of security, I believe, is going to provide a secure environment for not only the workers in the facility but (also) the cardholders.”
If you’d like to discuss medical marijuana, contact Ryan Hurley, director of the Rose Law Group Medical Marijuana Dept., rhurley@roselawgroup.com
