A new report says dispensary sales of marijuana surged in Arizona last year, with state regulators citing the fact that few medical marijuana patients are allowed to grow their own as the reason.
The Department of Health Services says dispensaries made more than 1.4 million transactions for a total of ten tons of pot in 2014, more than three times the amount sold in 2013.
State Health Director Will Humble said the major ailment patients cited to get a medical marijuana card was severe and chronic pain, which he calls the most difficult problem to prove or disprove.
Humble believes the right people are getting the drug but so are a lot of people who don’t need it. He said the age of those buying the drug makes the chronic pain claim suspect.
“The biggest sales and transaction both in volume and number of transactions is between [ages] 18 and 30. Surely, that's not where all the chronic pain is. That's in the 50, 60-year-old group," Humble said.
DHS reports usage figures indicate patients averaged about a joint of marijuana a day and 17 purchasing transactions during the year.