This bill proposes several updates to the current statutes regarding the medical marijuana fund and its allocation. Under the new law, the language specifying that funds "may" be used for grants for marijuana clinical trials will be changed to "shall," thereby mandating the use of these funds for this purpose. Additionally, the Arizona biomedical research center will be required to provide up to $5,000,000 annually for five consecutive years from the medical marijuana fund to administer and award competitive grants, replacing the previous permissive language that allowed for such funding.

Furthermore, the bill introduces a stipulation that these amendments will only take effect if they receive an affirmative vote of at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the legislature, ensuring a higher threshold for implementation. Overall, the bill strengthens the commitment to funding clinical trials and research related to medical marijuana while establishing a more rigorous legislative approval process for these changes.

Statutes affected:
Introduced Version: 36-2817, 36-2822, 15-1655, 36-1161, 36-3501, 36-2862, 36-2850, 36-2856, 2021-2022, 36-3291, 36-2812, 36-2803