(Image source from: arcannabis.org)

Phoenix:
With the ongoing medical marijuana debate, a Republican congressman has persuaded almost entire legislature to sign for testing medical marijuana for mold and agricultural chemicals. The State Senator Sonny Borrelli wants to make Medical marijuana safer for both patients and customers, in this new frontier in AZ with Medical Marijuana.

Sen. Sonny from Havasu city is introducing SB1420, a bipartisan bill to help the state understand how these marijuana crops are cultivated and details on their quality check there in. He said, “We want to make sure the patients and customers are well protected and well informed on what they are getting. After all it's supposed to be a medicine, so let's treat it like a medicine,” he added, "Customers need to know what's going on with this stuff they are buying that they are convinced that it's going to help them. We want to make sure that they understand that it's not as pure and organic as they think it is."

"Right now, there's no regulation whatsoever. It's the Wild West. There are some good dispensaries out there that are doing this right, and we want to make sure the others do the same," he said.

This SB 1420 would seek $2 million from state’s medical marijuana funds and enable the Dept. Of Agriculture to take samples for quality check. This also proposes to lower the annual fee patients have to pay for medical marijuana from $150 to $50 and $25 for renewal. Sonny has 78 co-sponsors from both house and Senate out of the 9- member legislature panel.

Arizona Dispensary Association (ADA) released the following statement “SB 1420 may mark the beginning of a seismic shift for medical cannabis in the state. The sponsor is a senior Republican, a committee chairman, and a conservative. The fact that he is leading the way on these improvements to the program is a terrific starting point and a remarkable example of what can be accomplished when the state’s leadership and the cannabis industry are working together.” - Joe DeMenna (Spokesman for ADA)

Arizona Marijuana Industry Trade Association (MITA) approved of the proposal and released their statement. "The industry isn't necessarily going to be jumping up and down for slightly more regulations, but the industry has to look at it as a whole," said MITA founder Demitri Downing. "The end result is best for the citizens, the patients, and the voters. Twenty-seven of 29 states have testing regulations regarding medical marijuana. “While at first you may think the industry is opposed to testing, the industry is really concerned its patients gets what it expects. Arizonans who use medical marijuana in a medical way deserve to have a product that is properly tested, affordable and packaged properly”

Laura Bianchi the Head of Cannabis Dept. at Rose Law Group from Scottsdale stated, “From an industry perspective I am certainly not opposed to it. In fact I think testing requirements are an important component of any medical product. No. 1, it's something that a physician has said will help them medically, but it's not covered by insurance so the cost can be great. And then to have them pay that every year, I just think that's an astronomical fee."

Borrelli said the lower fee is a no-brainer. "It's kind of hard for even the department to justify sitting on (nearly) $40 million," he said. "So $50 is reasonable, a renewal fee of $25 is very reasonable."

The above proposal amends a voter approved law thus it requires three forth majority of legislatures for being approved.

By Minu Manisha