Health

16 HE ALTH • Summer 2020 Once in the shadow of its recreational sales cousin, the number of patients with medical cannabis cards has spiked during the coronavirus shutdown • By Monica Busch O ver the last 12 years, Massachusetts voters have turned out in favor of legalizing access to marijuana – first voting to decriminalize it in 2008, then voting to legalize medical marijuana in 2012, and four years later, voting to legalize recreational cannabis for adults. Each step was momentous in its own right, especially for marijuana advocates and the entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the expanding – and highly popular – market. Over the course of the last year and a half, roughly the amount of time since the first recreational dispensaries opened their doors to the public in November 2018, the medical and recreational cannabis retailers – of which there are currently 62, according to the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission – have grown into two very different yet overlapping businesses, largely coexisting and occasionally competing. Keith Cooper, board chair of the industry association Commonwealth Dispensary Association of Massachusetts and CEO of Revolutionary Clinics in Fitchburg, which runs medical dispensaries in Cambridge and Somerville, estimated the recreational market in Massachusetts is eight to 10 times the size of the medical market. Recreational dispensaries have sold $633 million worth of product since the first two opened in 2018, according to the CCC. "There's very few companies today that are going after retail licenses for medical-only stores because of the limit on demand," Cooper said. Less than 1% of Mass. residents hold a medical marijuana card, which requires patients obtain a certification from a doctor, then register with the state and pay a fee. For recreational marijuana, anyone with a driver's license proving one is at least 21 years old can get cannabis. This is what leads to the recreational market being larger than the medical one, Cooper said. But that doesn't mean recreational is necessarily the better deal, Cooper said, saying no taxes are levied on medical marijuana sales, medical marijuana is allowed to be sold at much higher dosage points, and medical retail establishments are allowed to offer discounts banned on the recreational side of things. Medical cards are now allowed to be obtained almost instantly through telehealth doctor appointments. Plus, medical dispensaries like his will provide products to customers to help pay them back for the money they spent on acquiring a medical card. Still, with demand falling where it does, the days of the stand-alone medical dispensary in Massachusetts may be coming to an end. With the booming recreational market, Cooper said he doesn't know of any medical dispensary owner who doesn't want to eventually co-locate an adult-use operation on the same site. "Anyone who is paying for a license and the length of time and real estate expenses, it's just good business, if you can, to do both," Cooper said. It sounds simple enough, but adding a recreational-use retail operation can be challenging in some municipalities, where local regulations provide roadblocks to expansion. Cooper knows this problem well -- the city of Cambridge, one of two cities where Revolutionary Clinics operate, placed a two-year moratorium on allowing anyone who isn't a person of color or other economic empowerment applicant from opening a retail store. Cooper – who is suing the city in an attempt to undo the rule – said Matthew Huron, CEO of Good Chemistry The future of medical marijuana PHOTO/NATAN FISKE

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