Story Highlights

• Tryke Companies pulls application for 20-acre medical marijuana facility in Phoenix
• Site was granted variance by city for operation near residential area, drawing protest
• Residents, councilman say they are grateful for withdrawal

Plans are off to bring a medical-marijuana cultivation facility near a north Phoenix neighborhood, quelling the outrage of residents fighting the zoning variance that would allow it near their homes.

Researchers have created a smartphone app that could help determine whether someone is too high to get behind the wheel and would allow police to identify impaired drivers, an important development for law enforcement and marijuana consumers alike as more states move toward full marijuana legalization. The app, developed by researchers from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, uses high-speed cameras to detect involuntary, jerk-like eye movements associated with marijuana use, according to the State Press. The technology was unveiled earlier this month.  

Sue Sisley is still having trouble getting her ground-breaking work on the effects of cannabis on veterans with PTSD recognized in Arizona, where she is based — and lost three state contracts last summer. But she's found much more success in other states, including Colorado,  which approved her grant application for $2 million to further her research late last year.

TUCSON – A new organization is getting serious about marijuana legalization in Arizona.

A group called Arizonans for Responsible Legalization has hired an election attorney, political consultants and public relations help, according to spokesman Barrett Marson.

The organization will pay people to gather more than 150,000 valid signatures needed to put the initiative on the 2016 ballot. They need them by July 2016, according to Marson.

Jean-Paul Genet works for Purple Med Healing Center and Green Med Wellness Center. He said established dispensaries can transition their operations smoothly.

“The people who are already in the business, who are familiar with the ins and outs, are the ones who should lead the way,” he said.

Laura Rivero laid out an array of marijuana-infused goodies on the glass countertop inside High Mountain Health Medical Dispensary on Thursday. The packages advertised things like frosted red velvet cookies and “gourmet chocolate that melts in your mind.”

As she looked through the labels, Rivero pointed out that one lacked any information about the milligrams of THC in the product. Another only used only the words “house blend” instead of describing the dominant type of cannabis in the product.

It’s these types of details that Rivero said needs to be on the packages of all marijuana edibles sold in Arizona’s medical dispensaries so patients know exactly what they’re getting.

PHOENIX -- An Arizona-based psychiatrist and marijuana researcher is moving forward with a controversial cannabis study that could have nationwide implications.

Just months after her termination from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Dr. Sue Sisley has been given the go-ahead from the federal government for the study and has secured funding as well.

Sisley has faced numerous hurdles in her efforts to study the effects of four marijuana strains on veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"It has been five years now battling the government at all levels to try to get this study underway," she said.

A new marijuana-legalization initiative campaign was filed with the state today, but its organizers aren't ready to say much about it.

The chairman of the campaign, Dr. Gina Berman, is the same chairman of the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona initiative campaign launched in September.

The MPP group, which was responsible for the 2010 Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, has been working with various stakeholders' groups -- or not working with them, depending on who you talk to -- and hasn't yet released an official draft initiative.

Berman's new group doesn't have any ballot language to offer the public yet, either. And she's not answering questions about today's filing or why she's apparently now running two campaigns.

Nevada's vote is set and advocates believe they can get similar measures on the ballot in four other states

On Friday, Nevada lawmakers adjourned without voting on a petition submitted by residents to legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol. That means the initiative is going on the ballot in 2016, making Nevada the first state to officially be voting on pot legalization in the next election.

420careers.com Launches New Advertising Specials in March and April in Anticipation of 4/20 | Marijuana Business Press Releases | Cannabis News

Phoenix, AZ (MJbizwire) March 10, 2015

April 20th is near and 420careers.com, the world’s leading marijuana industry job website, is offering advertising specials throughout March and April in order to help companies promote their products and services during the marijuana industry’s busiest months.

420careers.com’s visitor demographic consists of marijuana consumers, enthusiasts and business owners, making it the ideal website to advertise marijuana-related products and services.

Juan Aguilar-Zavala and Mario Perez-Paz were arrested following a high-speed chase.(Photo: PCSO)

It was a chaotic scene on Interstate 8 near Casa Grande, Arizona, Wednesday morning as police chased a white truck from which, authorities said, two occupants started tossing bales of marijuana.

Much of that evidence was lost, however, as motorists who followed behind the chase stopped to pick up the drugs.

Jim Knupp, a Pinal County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said a deputy was monitoring traffic along the highway near Trekell Road when he spotted a 2006 White Trailblazer traveling at high rate of speed.