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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fourth Legislature, Second Regular Session
medical marijuana; pesticide use
Purpose
Specifies that only minimum risk pesticide products that are exempt from federal regulation are permitted in the cultivation of medical marijuana. Contains requirements for enactment for initiatives and referendums (Proposition 105).
Background
In 2010, Arizona voters approved the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act which establishes a regulatory system, overseen by the Department of Health Services (DHS), for a permissible amount of medical marijuana to be dispensed from a nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary to a qualifying patient or a qualifying patient's designated caregiver. Nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries must register with DHS and are subject to reasonable inspection (A.R.S. §§ 36-2804 and 36-2806).
Beginning November 1,
2020, nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries must test marijuana and
marijuana products for medical use to determine unsafe levels of microbial
contamination, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, growth
regulators and residual solvents and confirm the potency of the marijuana prior
to selling or dispensing marijuana or marijuana products to registered
qualified patients or registered designated caregivers (A.R.S.
§ 36-2803).
Federal law exempts certain pesticide products, also referred to as minimum risk pesticide products, from regulation under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, if the product: 1) only includes any of the outlined active or inert ingredients; 2) lists all of the ingredients on the product label; 3) does not claim to either control or mitigate organisms that pose a threat to human health, or insects or rodents carrying specific diseases; 4) displays the name of the producer or the company for whom the product was produced and the company’s contact information prominently on the product label; and 5) does not include any false or misleading statements on the product label. Examples of permitted active ingredients include castor oil, cedar oil, cinnamon, citric acid, corn oil and soybean oil (40 C.F.R. § 152.25(f)).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries to use only minimum risk pesticide products that are exempt from federal regulation in the cultivation of medical marijuana.
2. Makes a conforming change.
3. Requires for enactment the affirmative vote of at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the Legislature (Proposition 105).
4. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 3, 2020
CRS/AB/kja