The passage of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (A.R.S. § 36-2801, et seq.) (the "AZMM Act") has generated a lot of controversy. That's not surprising, considering that the AZMM Act was passed by a margin of only 4,340 votes (out of 1,678,356 votes cast), and only passed after the early and provisional ballots were counted.

The AZMM Act's supporters and detractors have continued the debate, as the first draft of the rules implementing the AZMM Act issued by the Arizona Department of Health Services (the "Department") generated more than 1,500 comments. The Department is expected to issue revised draft rules on January 31, 2011, followed by an additional opportunity to comment, as well as public hearings. The final rules are expected to be published on March 28, 2011, for implementation in April 2011.

The following is a summary of the Act, in plain English (or as close to plain English as is possible, without eliminating necessary detail)...