In a significant legal setback to the state’s medical-marijuana community, the Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled that cannabis extracts commonly sold in state dispensaries are illegal.

The ruling affects what the court and Arizona law calls “hashish,” or the resin extracted from marijuana. Medical marijuana consumers also know it as hash oil, shatter, wax, and other names. It’s become one of the biggest sellers at the state’s dispensaries, used to fill vape cartridges and create most cannabis-infused food and drinks.

The case stems from the 2013 arrest of Rodney Jones for possession of 0.05 ounces of hashish and drug paraphernalia. Jones claims his possession of hashish, a concentrated form of cannabis derived from the plant, is protected under the Arizona’s Medical Marijuana Act. That law, passed by voters in 2010, allows medical marijuana cardholders to have up to 2.5 ounces of “useable marijuana.”

The ruling will likely force dispensaries to either pull edibles and other forms of cannabis from shelves statewide or risk arrest or loss of operating licenses. The State Department of Health had previously allowed concentrate sales, and numerous large-scale commercial kitchens and extract manufacturers are operating statewide to supply more than 100 dispensaries.

The case will likely be appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court, and extracts will likely stay on shelves throughout the state, pending the appeal. But the lack of clarity will also likely fuel more arrests for hash in Arizona, where so-called “vape carts” and other extracts are a surging product class, comprising a reported 40% of store shelves.

“The state argues that by not specifically including extracted resin within its description of immunized marijuana, AMMA adopts the ‘pre-existing law distinguishing between cannabis and marijuana.’  We agree,” Judge Jon W. Thompson wrote for the majority, noting the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled hashish is distinct from marijuana and that only marijuana is protected under the medical law.

Had the framers of the law wanted hashish and other concentrates protected, they would have used the language in the law, he wrote. Mikel Weisser, director of Arizona’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the ruling was “big news,” and that he was heading to a meeting about it now. Weisser said “I expect an uproar,” he said. “You can guesstimate that about 40 percent of the market is based on some kind of concentrate. Vape pens, wax, topicals, edibles it’s all concentrated marijuana. The bottom line of the industry is threatened.”

The next Arizona NORML chapter meeting will be held on July 3rd, 7pm at 1344 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix. This will be a topic of discussion. This meeting is open to the general public and your attendance is highly encouraged.