WHITE MOUNTAINS — Communities are gearing up to implement the state’s new medical marijuana law, but a lot of how it will work is still unknown, according to town and Navajo County officials.

Town Manager Kelly Udall said Pinetop-Lakeside has a number of concerns about the law which passed statewide by about 4,300 votes but failed in Navajo County by a 2-1 margin.One of top concerns at the outset of its passage is where dispensaries will be located.

So far the proposition allows for about 120 medical marijuana dispensaries statewide with at least one in each of Arizona’s 15 counties.

Udall said he thinks the possibility of one opening in Pinetop-Lakeside is remote, but the matter is going to Planning and Zoning in December to look at how the town might be able to influence the issue through zoning ordinances or amendments. It will go before the town council in January.

Udall said what the town will look at is how to keep a dispensary “observable” so governance can keep a watchful eye on its operations should one come to Pinetop-Lakeside.

Udall said there is also some concern about proximity of dispensaries to schools, day care centers and other public places where people congregate. He said the town will enforce the laws of the state, but if those laws are not clear they will need clarification.

Udall said it will take a little time to interpret the law and how it will work, but in the meantime governments are looking at how to try and regulate some aspects of it through rezoning.

County Attorney Brad Carlyon echoed Udall’s concerns and more.

He said the new law raises issues with law enforcement, court probations, drug-free work places, drug-free residential complexes and the like.

He said if someone has a medical marijuana card it may be difficult in the future to keep them out of drug-free work places or residential facilities because they will have a legal prescription like any other legal medication.

Basically Carlyon said that as he understands the law, most of its administration will be in the hands of state Health Services and there will be little influence his office can have on it or the people authorized to use medical marijuana.

He, like Udall, said he has concerns over the issue of dispensaries. The new law states that if a dispensary is not within 25 miles of a medical marijuana card holders residence, that resident can grow up to 12 plants to provide themselves with 2.5 ounces of marijuana per two-week period.

Carlyon also pointed out that a person designated as a caregiver to medical marijuana card holders can grow for five cardholders at a time meaning they could grow up to 60 plants at a time.

His concern is that while the law requires production of medical marijuana be strictly regulated and that it be grown indoors, a caregiver’s operation may not be as secure as someone growing it commercially. His concern is that people who use the drug illegally may break into a caregiver’s production facility and be able to get away with a large amount of marijuana.

Commercial growth of marijuana in Navajo County is also a worry for him. He said he has heard a rumor that someone may be looking at the Snowflake or Wilcox areas to open a commercial growing facility, but The Independent has not substantiated that.

Carlyon said the issue of DUI comes into question. Law enforcement can keep someone who has proven to be a DUI threat from drinking or going to a bar, but he is unsure how that will work with medical marijuana since it will be prescribed.

He said having a medical marijuana card provides the holder with a “shield” of protections that he is worried will backfire.

He said the county will also be actively looking at ways to have input on Prop. 203 through rezoning.

“I think it’s incumbent to get some zoning on this,” Navajo County Sheriff K.C. Clark said. ”I will uphold the law. The state passed it and I will honor that vote, but I have some serious questions about it.”

Clark said he thinks Prop. 203 was a back-door maneuver at quasi-legalization marijuana in the state and he thinks it was done all wrong.

“If we are going to do this, let’s do it right,” he said.

Clark said the law should have been written so it allowed for more and better taxation and regulation to bolster the struggling economy and budget which is estimated to be more than a billion dollars in the red.

“It has flaws, but the people passed it and that is what we have to deal with,” he said.

Like Carlyon, Clark is very concerned over the issue of DUI in connection with medical marijuana saying that even though it is a controlled substance the way he sees it his department will have “no enforcement over cardholders.”

“The way I understand it, it cannot be used against you in a court of law,” he said. “It is too broad the way it is written.”

According to Clark his officers will have to go through state Health Services if they want to go inside a dispensary to make sure things are on the up and up.

He said Health Services will have to notify the dispensary (or caregiver) 48 hours in advance. He was unsure if law enforcement could simply accompany them in or would have to be invited.

Clark said that he like Udall and Carlyon would like better clarification of how to implement Prop. 203 and what it does and does not allow.

Reach the reporter at mleiby@wmicentral.com