Smart & Safe Arizona Act – Buying Cannabis Seeds

The Smart and Safe Arizona Act is a recreational cannabis proposition likely to be on November’s ballot, which would legalize a home-grow of up to six plants per person, with a maximum total of twelve plants per household. These home cultivators would also be allowed to give away an ounce of homegrown cannabis or up to six marijuana plants (including seeds) to another legal Arizonian adult. Mr. Tim Sultan, who worked with the Arizona Dispensaries Association to draft the proposition, confirmed that getting the seeds to start a cannabis home grow may prove to be quite tricky. Tim also now represents the Marijuana Industry Trade Association.

“Anybody selling cannabis seeds in Arizona without a dispensary license is not authorized to do so.”

Tim Sultan, Marijuana Industry Trade Association

Medical cannabis dispensaries are not selling seeds, and ADA board member Moe Asnani has an answer as to why.

“I can simply point you to the statute that was passed in [Prop 203] — the Medical Marijuana Act, If you look at the definition of usable marijuana in the statute, it actually excludes seeds from usable marijuana. And we’re not allowed to dispense anything that’s not usable marijuana … Smart and Safe will change that.”

Moe Asani, iLava Co-Founder
The Downtown & D2 Dispensaries in Tucson (Partner)

This leaves no legal way to buy cannabis seeds if voters approve the Smart and Safe Act — until or unless retail shops start selling cannabis seeds.

Yet the dispensaries started somehow. And some medical patients and caregivers have been growing weed for years.

Cannabis Seed Banks

Online cannabis seed companies, called seed banks, offer to ship seeds anywhere in the USA and abroad. Cannabis seeds are sometimes sold as “hemp seeds” to take advantage of some non-existent legal loopholes that were conjured up or heard through the grapevine. A few of the seed bank owners we’ve talked to don’t realize that it is actually worse to falsely present their cannabis seeds as hemp seeds. Since legal hemp cannot contain more than 0.3 percent of total THC, many seed bank sellers claim they’re hemp seeds. No one’s the wiser.

To be clear, farming hemp is now legal in most states, including Arizona. However, these laws didn’t legalize personal hemp cultivating or possession of hemp seeds (except for hemp farmers).

Arizona Medical Cannabis Patients

Most Arizona medical cannabis patients aren’t licensed to cultivate themselves under current law. For an Arizonian to be able to grow cannabis at home, they must be living outside a 25-mile radius from an operating cannabis dispensary. State records indicate there are 2,613 qualifying patients and designated caregivers authorized to cultivate cannabis in the state of Arizona.

All of this raises questions about how Arizona’s cannabis industry started. Cannabis seeds couldn’t be imported or owned legally, so immaculate conception may be the best term to describe how Arizona’s dispensaries began cultivating cannabis. It seems likely that the recreational cannabis market will follow suit.

The ability to cultivate cannabis at home would be a notable change from the current legal atmosphere.

But will cannabis dispensaries and caregivers sell marijuana seeds and plants?

In Colorado, which approved recreational cannabis in 2012, some shops sell seeds and plant clones. Under that state’s law, according to the Denver Clone Store’s website,

“Seeds are legally considered to be immature plants, so the typical limit on seeds, clones, or a combination of both is 6, unless you have a medical recommendation for more…”

Denver Clone Store

The Smart and Safe Arizona Act’s definition of “marijuana” includes seeds, and it doesn’t describe any limit other than the one-ounce possession limit.

According to Asnani, cannabis selling seeds in Arizona would be the choice of each dispensary. But cannabis seeds, clones, and grow classes may become commonplace if voters approve the upcoming proposition.

“People need to try to grow themselves. Some of them may be really good at it, and some won’t. I think it’s something they should have the right to try it out.”

Moe Asani, iLava Co-Founder
The Downtown & D2 Dispensaries in Tucson (Partner)