The law was passed in 2010 and has been scheduled for a two phase implementation.

The Arizona medical marijuana card system was Phase 1 and has been going fine since April 2011. Arizona medical marijuana doctors evaluate patients, write certifications, and the AZ Dept of Health Services administers cards. The medical marijuana dispensary phase 2 has reached a potential implementation point with this lottery selection of over 95 locations a few weeks ago.

Here are the top three reasons why going into the Arizona medical marijuana dispensary business is an extremely risky proposition.

1. Upfront Cost – In order to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Arizona, applicants needed to have $150,000 in the bank for at least a month. In addition, potential dispensary owners needed to secure a lease and build out the property with appropriate security, inventory management systems, credit card processing, and will need to train personnel along with having a medical director on board.

The upfront cost for opening a medical marijuana dispensary will therefore be somewhere between $200,000 and $350,000. Somehow, that amount will need to be financed either with common equity from owner investment, or bank debt. Banks are not likely to lend on this kind of investment since marijuana remains federally illegal and most banks receive FDIC insurance. That could be at risk if lending occurs on a business that sells a federally illegal substance.

So the most prominent reason why it is a risky investment is it a cost a lot of money to consider doing it and then making it a reality. Those who have persisted have had to wait while the governor sued the Department of Justice and needed to keep that money ready as opposed to spending it on a separate investment.

2. Opportunity cost. When it comes to opportunity cost, it is a fairly simple concept. When deciding on an investment opportunity, the main thing to consider is what are the other opportunities that are being forgone in order to put your money into the investment being considered. If that money could be put into a safer investment which has the potential to yield the same return, then it is a better way to go.

In the case of a medical marijuana dispensary, with the lengthy delays, upfront capital expense required and the other opportunities in the business sector, it may be that the opportunity cost is too great to move forward on a dispensary.

3. Marijuana is federally illegal. This is the biggest problem of all. Marijuana is federally illegal and remains a schedule one controlled narcotic. Years ago, the federal government put out a memo saying they were not interested in spending federal resources going after businesses that were compliant with state law for medical marijuana.

The federal government has now done a 180 on this approach, and in California the US Attorney Generals are now actively pursuing medical marijuana dispensaries. For instance, they have sent letters to landlords of dispensaries threatening civil forfeiture if they did not affect their tenants. They have had the IRS go after dispensaries as being unable to deduct normal business expenses similar to other regular businesses.

The latest concern is that the Arizona Atty. Gen. has now filed for summary judgment to stop the medical marijuana program. The stated reason is that federal law conflicts with state law when it comes to medical marijuana and that federal law should be respected. This is despite the fact that the people of Arizona approved the law and would like to see it implemented. So even with a law abiding medical marijuana business, there is major risk still is in place for a federal raid against a law-abiding and taxpaying entity.

For these three main reasons, opening a medical marijuana dispensary in the state of Arizona is a very risky and costly proposition. Granted, the reward may be substantial, but there are other ways to make an exceptional investment than incurring this type of risk. Especially considering that dispensaries have to be nonprofit entities.

If you live in AZ and need an Arizona medical marijuana card, Arizona MMC has doctors who can evaluate you and write your certification to obtain a card.

The all inclusive fee includes submitting your application to the state along with taking your photo ID. Call (855) 294 3227 toll free today.

If you recall, licensed caregivers can grow marijuana for up to five patients along with himself if he is a licensed patient as well. 80% of the cardholders are new applicants, and 13% are those who have renewed. Now that the program is well into its second year, plenty of patients come up for renewal every month. 83% of those with cards have checked the box that they want to cultivate, which means to grow their own marijuana. This is fine at this point in time, but as the dispensaries open up the law states that if a person is within 25 miles of a dispensary they are no longer allowed to grow.

Approximately 70% of cardholders are male and the most common disease condition continues by far to be chronic pain at 89%. This is consistent with both California and Colorado, with the reason being that chronic pain encompasses such a broad variety of conditions for which medical marijuana is helpful. 20% of cardholders have the nausea and or muscle spasms condition boxes checked, and approximately 4% each have either cancer or hepatitis C with the other conditions being of much lower incidence.

The good news is that the number of cardholders continues to steadily grow and people are able to get the assistance they need. What remains to be seen is whether or not phase 2 of the program, the medical marijuana dispensaries, will come on board in the next year. The Department of Health Services proceeded with the lottery selection, however, the Atty. Gen. has filed a lawsuit for summary judgment so that part of the program is in limbo.

If you live in Arizona and would like to obtain an Arizona Medical Marijuana card, call Arizona MMC today. The office has licensed, compassionate Arizona medical marijuana doctors, along with obtaining your medical records for free and free assistance with uploading your application to the state. The number toll-free is 855-294-3227.

That cut down the number of potential lottery winners to 99. 20 some of those areas only received one applicant. Therefore there was really no drawing to occur, as those applicants won that area by default. For 70 some others, the drawing was held on August 7 and those winners will be notified by mail. Two licenses were not given out due to pending lawsuits.

The lottery itself went off very smoothly. However, there appear to be some more turbulent times ahead for the law. Prior to the lottery, 13 out of 15 County prosecutors signed a letter to the governor asking for her to repeal the law. They stated that federal law supersedes state law and that the marijuana law should be stopped. The governor promptly refused.

Shortly thereafter, the Atty. Gen. for Arizona Tom Horne decided to write a non-binding opinion basically stating the same thing, that federal law supersedes state law when it comes to medical marijuana. This set the stage for an upcoming showdown and new lawsuit.

The governor refused to sign the letter from the County prosecutors because she stated she needed to uphold the will of the people. And pending a higher authority telling her to cease and desist, the law would be implemented as it is supposed to be. The lottery applicants who have spent many thousands of dollars getting to this point are not simply going to let it go if a lawsuit prevents their opening.

The next few months should be very interesting regarding the dispensaries. In the meantime, Arizona MMC is the best clinic in the Valley for obtaining your Arizona medical marijuana card. Call toll free (855) 294-3227 for scheduling – the office takes your picture and uploads your application at no extra charge!

When a normal business files for its taxes, it subtracts off the gross revenue normal business tax deductions such as wages, utilities, rent, and other business expenses. One of the largest business expenses typically deducted is the cost of goods sold.

In the case of a medical marijuana dispensary, the cost of goods sold would be that of the marijuana that is being sold to patients. In addition, there would be all the other typical business expenses such as the wages of people working the dispensary, utilities to grow the marijuana with the light bill, and so forth.

In the IRS tax court, the ruling was that since a medical marijuana dispensary is federally illegal, they are therefore dealing in a controlled substance and are therefore not eligible to deduct any of the normal deductions that a business would take. That would mean that the business would have to pay taxes off of the top line gross revenue number as opposed to the bottom line net income number.

In the case of the Vapor Room, this amounted to over $2 million difference of taxes owed in just a few years.

With medical marijuana dispensaries coming on board in the state of Arizona within the next six months, this ruling sets a precedent that could vastly change the landscape of dispensaries tax requirements. If an Arizona medical marijuana dispensary in the state decides to use a normal profit and loss statement to calculate the amount of taxes it owes, the IRS could easily decide they owe a significant amount more. And with this new precedent having been set, it would be extremely difficult to fight that in Tax Court.

One additional component of the ruling was the judges denial of the Vapor Room being able to deduct medical care of patients. In a previous tax court ruling, a judge allowed a dispensary to deduct the medical care of patients as it was completely separate from the dispensaries marijuana sales. In the state of Arizona, dispensaries are not allowed to perform evaluations of patients to receive medical marijuana cards, or have ancillary services in the dispensary such as massage treatments and the like.

It will be very interesting to see what additional ways dispensaries are able to try and deduct some of the revenue coming in.

If you are a person suffering from a debilitating condition in the state of Arizona such as chronic pain or severe nausea and vomiting, migraines are any of the 13 acceptable conditions, let Arizona MMC help you with your evaluation for an Arizona medical marijuana card. The office will obtain your medical records at no charge, take your photo ID, and upload your application to the state all included with the one low price.

Call today toll-free at 855-294-3227.

First of all, you need a new and current photograph to submit with your card renewal application. The law states that the picture needs to be taken no more than 60 calendar days prior to the submission. So make sure to have a current picture on hand.

You are able to change your demographic information with the renewal. This would include your email address, physical address, and even your name if you have gotten married or divorced. All that’s required is supporting documentation during the renewal process.

Prior to submitting the card renewal application, patients need to obtain another physician certification form. It does not have to be done by the original certifying doctor, the new one is fine. It must be dated within 90 calendar days of an application. So if your card is expiring in 60 days, it is perfectly fine to get certified by the Arizona medical marijuana doctor now knowing that the form is good for three months.

During the renewal, patients can change their designated caregiver or remove one. In addition, a person can change his or her cultivation status. This means that if a person is dealing with a designated caregiver and wants to grow marijuana himself, this can be accomplished on the new application. The patient and the caregiver cannot cultivate at the same time, it needs to be one or the other.

If you have lost your existing card and need the number, you can simply contact the Arizona Department of Health Services with a email to obtain it. They simply need your contact information in the email address is located on the Department of Health Services website.

If you are an Arizona medical marijuana cardholder and need to renew your card for the next year, Arizona MMC can help you. The clinic is offering a special at $25 off for the renewal. Call toll free (855) 294-3227 for scheduling.

A petition is put forward, and then a hearing is held for the public. The four conditions under consideration included migraine headaches, post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. All four of these conditions are legal in other states such as Delaware and California, but no one particular state has all of them legal. Arizona would’ve been the first state to potentially legalize all 4 conditions.

During the consideration phase, the Arizona Department of Health Services commissioned the University of Arizona to review the existing scientific literature. The reviews came back in a scientific format that essentially stated that none of the conditions had sufficient Level 1 evidence to recommend their approval. They were all denied.

This places these four conditions into a definite Catch-22. The problem is that the National Institute for Drug Policy will not allow large Level 1 scientific studies to be performed due to marijuana being federally illegal. However, those are the exact studies that the researchers from the University of Arizona wanted to see in their literature review.

So the studies being sought cannot be performed, yet without them the researchers would not consider lower level studies. For each of the conditions under consideration, there are small studies showing the efficacy of medical marijuana along with a huge amount of anecdotal reports from veterans along with patients who have the various conditions and have benefited from medical marijuana.

Unfortunately it appears that further conditions will probably not be added until further research is performed. And that will probably take a rescheduling of marijuana from its schedule 1 status by the DEA into a lower level. At that point, larger research studies will be able to occur as the restrictions won’t be so great.

For now, migraines fall under the chronic pain scenario, so individuals suffering from migraines can obtain an Arizona medical marijuana card. This is not a loophole, as the director of the department, will humble, actually stated in his blog that this is an except the bull use of an evaluation.

If you live in Arizona and would like to obtain an Arizona medical marijuana card, call Arizona MMC today. The clinic has licensed and compassionate Arizona medical marijuana doctors who will perform you’re in person of valuation and medical record review. The number toll-free is 855-294-3227.

Over 60% of both Democrats and Republicans feel that the efforts of the US government to reduce the illegal drug trade has failed. 10% of those surveyed believe that the war on drugs has been a success.

Over the last three years, numerous public opinion polls have shown at least a 50% legalization mark. While this number remains impressive, it is even more impressive when compared to the survey respondents thoughts on other drugs. Under 10% of respondents would legalize powder cocaine, heroin, crack cocaine or crystal meth.

In Arizona, medical marijuana is legal for 13 conditions. If you need an Arizona medical marijuana card, call Arizona MMC today at (855) 294-3227 toll free.