The amount of marijuana being purchased and consumed in Arizona is up. New figures from the Department of Health Services show that in 2018, Arizonans smoked, ate or otherwise consumed nearly 60 tons of the drug. That’s an almost 41 percent increase over last year.
But the number of medical marijuana patients is up less than 20 percent, to slightly more than 186,000 people. So, what accounts for the uptick? Will Humble was the state health director when the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act was approved in 2010.
"It might not be that the heavy users are using even more but that more of the people with cards that weren't even going to dispensaries are now going because it's more convenient or they like the product or the edibles are more desirable than what they were getting from their dealer."
While whole marijuana — leaves and flowers — remains the most popular from for buyers, its year-over-year use is up less than 40 percent. But sales of edibles and other forms is up by 55 percent from 2017 to 2018.