Arizonans bought more than 86,000 pounds of medical marijuana last year
Jan 22, 2018, 3:04 PM
(AP Photo/Mathew Sumner)
(AP Photo/Mathew Sumner)
PHOENIX — Arizonans bought more than 86,000 pounds of medical marijuana last year, a report from the state department of health said.
The monthly report from the Arizona Department of Health Service said medical marijuana cardholders purchased a whopping 86,637 pounds of the drug in 2017.
Just 6,510 pounds of that was sold as edibles, oils or other products. The remainder was sold in its typical plant form that people smoke.
The agency does not keep figures for the amount of money spent on medical marijuana sales.
Sales rose on average as the year went on. The data showed that the busiest month for medical marijuana purchases was December, when cardholders bought nearly 9,000 pounds of it.
In December, that number was just above 5,000 pounds.
The report also included data about the number of Arizonans who hold a card. The agency said 152,979 patients in Arizona held a medical marijuana card by the end of 2017.
Another 4,731 dispensary agents also had a card, along with 944 caregivers.
A vast majority — about 97,000 — of those who had a card lived in Maricopa County. Another 21,000 lived in Pima County.
More than 60 percent of those who have a card in Arizona were male.
About 70 percent of cardholders were 50 years old or younger.
Medical marijuana cards can be obtained by people for a slew of reasons, but the lion’s share of patients had complained about chronic pain. More than 130,000 patients — a full 85 percent of cardholders — had been prescribed the narcotic because of pain.
