By Rusty Bradshaw
Independent Newsmedia

The Sun City area will get its third medical marijuana facility next month.

Allgreens Inc. officials plan to reopen their dispensary in the shopping center on the northwest corner of 99th Avenue and Bell Road in a former bank building. Dispensary officials expect the new location to be open by April 20, according to Anthony Harrington, Allgreens general manager.

“This is a better facility — better building, more space, more visibility,” he explained.



Allgreens will join White Mountain Health Center, 9420 W. Bell Road, and Swell Farmacy, 12000 W. Michigan Ave., Youngtown, in the Sun City area.

Allgreens is now located at 13431 W. Westgate Drive in Surprise. The facility is in a converted garage with about 1,700 square feet, according to Mr. Harrington. The Sun City building has 7,000 square feet.

“We will use the vast majority of it,” he added.

The Sun City location will also utilize the drive-through of the former bank.

“We will be one of the first dispensaries in the country to have a drive-through,” Mr. Harringston said.

The Sun City location was repainted and the dispensary name added. The not-yet-occupied facility drew mixed reactions from residents.

“Just discovered a former bank turned into a ‘dispensary,’” Sun City resident Arnold Chait stated in an email. “I do  not believe we need yet another provider of marijuana in Sun City.”

He believes the business’s location on Bell Road will not improve the neighborhood and could be detrimental to the real estate market.

Sun City resident Carolyn Copeland does not see a need for medical marijuana at all.

“I do not believe that the Sun City area needs even one marijuana dispensary,” she stated in an email. “Sun Citians have enough problems with cognitive impairment; they don’t need to be high on marijuana, too.”

Sun City resident Katherinbe Barngrover sees additional dispensaries as inevitable.

“As more seniors discover the benefits of medical marijuana, the demand is increasing,” she stated in an email. “An example is the benefit of sublingual cannibus oil for treatment for pain, insomnia, nausea for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.”

Having two dispensaries in such proximity as those on Bell Road is overkill, according to Sun City resident Diane Billings.

“That being said, I do believe that having three dispensaries in Sun City (area) is needed — just spread out a little more,” she stated in an email. “Those in need of this ‘medication’ in Sun City may have a difficult time travelling any distance due to the aging process and illness.”

Having multiple dispensaries in a community does not violate the medical marijuana regulations established when voters approved the measure in 2012, according to Ben Palmer, Arizona Department of Health Services public information officer. He explained that initially one dispensary was allowed in pre-existing Clinical Health Analysis Areas for every 10 pharmacies statewide. By that calculation, 100 dispensaries were allowed in 2012.

“After three years, dispensaries that are relocated could go anywhere they wanted to,” Mr. Palmer said.

While that opened the door for an unlimited number of dispensaries in a CHAA, Mr. Palmer believes it unlikely any analysis area would become overwhelmed with medical marijuana facilities.

“When enough have gone in a CHAA, saturation would create a self-limiting situation,” he said.

DHS officials allocated this year another 30 dispensary licenses based on patient density in certain areas, Mr. Palmer said. It is only the second allocation of dispensaries and no additional allocations are planned for the future, he added. There are no other limits on dispensary concentration within geographic areas.

“Cities and other entities can regulate that dispensaries cannot be located within a certain distance of a school or child care center,” Mr. Palmer explained.

There are no schools or child care centers in the Sun Cities.

Arizona voters narrowly defeated a measure in the November 2016 general election that would have allowed recreational use of marijuana in Arizona.

Marijuana use continues to be a hot point for some residents concerned about the potential danger it brings to the community. Sun City West resident Diane Cheney is concerned about traffic accidents caused by marijuana impaired drivers. She cited a recent report of a marijuana impaired driver striking a teenage girl in Phoenix when he failed to obey a stop sign. The girl suffered leg and head trauma.

“How can we assure ourselves that drivers are not under the influence of marijuana? By having fewer marijuana facilities available,” Ms. Cheney stated in an email. “Seniors have enough loss of mental abilities. Do we want to increase their problems, which become our problems on our streets and highways?”

Ms. Copeland agreed.

“I don’t think we even need one (dispensary) for the whole Phoenix area,” she stated. “Just because you have a prescription for medical marijuana doesn’t mean you should be able to drive around stoned, as happened in a recent accident.”

Sun City resident Laura Clutter is opposed to any use of marijuana.

“There probably are instances when its use is helpful to a health condition, but I’m certain that it is so over used,” she stated in an email.

Ms. Clutter also believes having any dispensaries in Sun City is an invitation to outsiders to obtain drugs more readily and could bring unwanted traffic to the community.

“Is it really necessary to have these outlets a few blocks apart?” she asked. “I can’t believe that there are so many residents of Sun City who rely on this use to alleviate their medical issues.”

Sun City West resident Jean Goncalves is concerned with the growing number of dispensaries in senior communities, and is concerned about abuse.

“Colorado is experiencing a great deal of problems with its statewide availability of marijuana,” she stated in an email. “Arizona has voted down recreational use of it, but there has been a lot of money and resources that have come into our state working hard to have it legalized.”

She finds it frightening there is a need for so many marijuana dispensaries.

“How many unscrupulous doctors are prescribing it when it is not medically needed?” she asked. “Also, what’s to stop young people from offering ‘grandma’ money in exchange for her getting it? There is always chances of great abuse.”

Ms. Cheney, a psychologist, cited Feb. 23, 2017 “New England Journal of Medicine” article that stated cannibus comes with important risks, including impairment of cognitive and psychomotor function and strong evidence that THC, the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis, increases the risk of psychotic symptoms or panic attacks.