The Smart and Safe Arizona Act to legalize adult-use marijuana in Arizona was refiled this week with some revisions. One of the biggest updates includes increasing the number of available recreational dispensary licenses from 130 to 156.
The 26 additional dispensary retail licenses would be available to “individuals from communities disproportionately impacted,” according to AZ Central. Another change is to allow more people previously convicted of marijuana possession to qualify for expungement. Persons convicted of possessing 2.5 ounces of marijuana or less would qualify for expungement, providing that no additional charges or violent crimes were attached.
The ballot measure says, “The court shall grant the petition unless the prosecuting agency established by clear and convincing evidence that the petitioner is not eligible for expungement.”
The updated language also pertains to the potency of edibles. The ballot measure’s new language states that recreational marijuana edibles will be limited to a maximum of 10mg of THC per edible, and limited to a maximum of 100mg of THC per package of edibles.
Stacy Pearson of Strategies 360 said, “We assumed DHS would have set it at 10 milligrams, so we just clarified it. We changed that assumption to a requirement. Products will be sold at a lesser amount; they just can’t be higher than that.”
The changes also include allowing delivery services to deliver recreational marijuana order from state-licensed recreational dispensaries. The DHS will be able to adopt delivery regulations.