This year SWCC has an incredibly special presentation. Former AZ-DHS Director, Dr. Will Humble, takes the stage and hosts a question and answer session titled, “Staying True to Voter Will in a Challenging Political Environment: Implementation of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.” Humble will speak about the process of creating the AMMA and the struggles of making medical marijuana work in one of the harshest political climates in America. Humble’s tenure as director at DHS from 2009 to 2015 led him from the initial stage of analyzing the language in the original “somewhat nebulous” Prop203 ballot measure to developing the rules and protocols for Arizona’s medical marijuana program that shaped the industry and patient community we have today.

On the whole, Humble is proud of his accomplishment as director during the program’s formative years and eager to defend or debate key decisions along the way, “I honestly think we did a good job, but acknowledge there were errors that can be improved on.” For example, one of the issues Humble regrets to this day is not adding administrative code language that would have allowed lowering the costs of cards as the program grew. “At the time, our frame of reference was Colorado, who had a fairly loose program. Since our program was much more restrictive, we expected far fewer patients. That was off the mark. We could have dropped the costs after three years. All we needed was the initial funds to pay for the start-up costs—things like additional hardware and software and staffing. Of course, there was the wildcard thrown in when it came to the cost of defending the program,” Humble laughs. “There was no shortage of lawsuits.”

With a Masters’ in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1992 (and later an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Arizona in 2015), Humble had worked with DHS for more than 20 years, but only been on the job as agency director for about a year when Prop203 passed in November of 2010. In addition to all his other duties as the director of health services for a state of seven million people, Humble had to become an expert on medical marijuana research and public health policy. Suddenly Humble faced twin challenges of erecting a functional regulated program that would eventually grow to serve over 135,000 Arizonans, while keeping those opposing cannabis from destroying it before the program could even be built.

Arizona’s conservative “law and order” politicians attacked the program at every turn. Implementation was delayed for over a year. One of the key challenges in the process was creating functional DHS agency rules based on the voter approved statutes. Using public comments to inform his policymaking decisions, Humble’s balancing act of placating the prohibitionists while adhering to the provisions of the ballot measure required numerous compromises. As Humble, explained in December of 2010, “We figured hey, if we put some true checks and balances in this system, we can actually make this a medical marijuana program and not a recreational marijuana program.”

Looking back today, Humble acknowledges, “I never thought the legislature would succeed in shutting the program down. I was given quite a bit of latitude from the governor. We weren’t micromanaged in any way. Our first set of rules were really stringent. We didn’t think they would stay that restrictive for the length of the program, but it showed the governor’s office and the legislature that we were serious about being a good watchdog. If we had loose rules from the beginning we would not have gained the administration’s trust and support; and, those who wanted looser rules in the first place would still be pushing for looser rules, no matter where we started.”

In the end, Humble managed the regulation of an industry that grew from zero revenue in 2010 to more than 210 million dollars in 2015. After leaving DHS in that year, Humble returned to the issue of cannabis reform during the 2016 Prop205 campaign for cannabis legalization. In addition to appearing at debates and panel discussions, Humble also presented a lecture called “What do Cities Need to Know if Marijuana Becomes Legal” to the August 2016 League of Cities and Towns Annual Conference. Will Humble is currently serving as the Executive Director for the Arizona Public Health Association (AZ-PHA).

If you EVER had a question about the AMMA, this is your chance to ask it. Post your questions for Dr. Humble here.

–Mikel Weisser is the state director of AZ-NORML