The Arizona Department of Health Services has started accepting applications for “social-equity” marijuana shop licenses despite lawsuits seeking to stop the program and make it more inclusive.

The new licenses are intended to help people harmed by previous marijuana laws before the drug was legalized for recreational use last year by giving 26 individuals licenses to run lucrative marijuana shops.

But as with social-equity programs in other states, Arizona’s program run by ADHS is facing headwinds from people who don’t think the rules are fair to everyone who should have a chance to apply for them.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner on Wednesday heard from plaintiffs in one of those lawsuits but declined to order ADHS to stop taking applications.

People who want to apply for the program have until Dec. 14 to submit the required paperwork. Those applicants are required to have begun a mandatory business training from ADHS.

The lawsuit filed last month seeks to stop the program and prevent big dispensaries from snapping up the 26 lucrative licenses.

The complaint says the rules as written don’t meet the requirements set out in Proposition 207 for creating a program for new marijuana shops to benefit the communities negatively affected by the enforcement of previous marijuana laws. [Read more at azcentral.com]