Pubdate: Thu, 04 Apr 2013
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2013 Tucson Weekly
Contact:  http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: J. M. Smith

DISPENSARY DELAY

The Distribution System for Medical Marijuana Hasn't Evolved As 
Quickly As Most Expected

If you build it they will come. Maybe.

Back in the day (the day being late 2010), when a functional medical 
cannabis program was a gleam in our collective eye, there was hope 
spilling all over the ground where medical cannabis was concerned. 
There was hope that we would quickly have that functional system. 
Hope that dispensaries and patients would soon be trading green for 
green. Hope that a thriving cannabis economy would spring to life 
across the state, leaving relief and comfort in its wake. Or not.

A state report updated March 22 by the Arizona Department of Health 
Services shows that the dispensary system isn't taking shape quite as 
fast as many had hoped.

More than a year after publishing the program's rules, DHS has 
authorized opening just 11 of a potential 120-plus dispensaries, in 
Page, Bullhead City, Williams, Glendale (two), Eloy, Tucson (three), 
Willcox and Bisbee. It's unclear how many of those have opened 
because the state doesn't give that information. But two are open in 
Tucson-The Green Halo, 7710 S. Wilmot Road, and Southern Arizona 
Integrated Therapies, 112 S. Kolb Road. One in north-central Tucson 
has been cleared to open but hasn't yet, and a fourth is gearing up 
to open at 8060 E. 22nd St., although the state has yet to give it clearance.

The Desert Bloom Releaf Center expects to open this spring, according 
to an email from Aari Ruben, who got the Dispensary Registration 
Certificate for the zone that stretches from Tucson east to the 
Cochise County line.

The latest patient report from DHS, released March 12, shows there 
are roughly 38,000 Arizona medical marijuana patients statewide. Of 
those, just under 10 percent-about 3,600-are in the Tucson metro 
area. There are 10 dispensary zones in and around Tucson, not 
counting outlying areas such as Green Valley and Oro Valley. The 
state has issued registration certificates for eight of those zones, 
meaning the operators have at least begun work toward opening.

That's a lot of cannabis vendors, IMO. Frankly, I'm skeptical that 
the market will support that many dispensaries.

It seems the expected flood of patients through dispensary doors has 
been more of a trickle. When Integrated Therapies opened in December, 
it was taking patients only by appointment. It was a way to manage 
the influx of patients and the limited supplies at the tiny 
dispensary. But two months after it opened, the dispensary was 
welcoming walk-ins and staff hours had been cut.

The bottom line is that dispensaries are expensive, and that alone 
will keep patients away in droves. I hear a lot of complaints about 
dispensary prices, which can easily be twice what caregivers charge. 
In fact, it's pretty much the only complaint.

Convenience is probably not enough to draw the number of patients 
these dispensaries will need to survive. It's nice to walk into a 
shop and pick and choose from a variety of meds, but the bottom line 
is often the bottom line. Caregivers here are taking somewhere in the 
neighborhood of $10 per gram to compensate for growing costs. That's 
half or less of what dispensaries can charge per gram.

So unless competition from all these shops drives prices down 
significantly, most MMJ patients will keep doing what they have 
always done-get meds from their friends. And until the state approves 
more dispensaries, we won't see that competition, so I guess we'll 
just have to hurry up and wait some more to see what happens.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom