Health

HE A LTH • Summer 2020 17 H Source: Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission COVID bump Almost 20,000 new patients registered under the Massachusetts medical marijuana program when adult-use dispensaries were temporarily shut down due to COVID-19 in March. February 2020 62,459 May 2020 79,252 Number of registered medical marijuana patients Month municipal regulations like these stand to threaten the health and longevity of the medical marijuana industry, and he fears challenges like these could lead to a complete market collapse. Not that bad Not everyone in the field is as convinced the situation is so dire. Brandon Morphew, marketing director for Temescal Wellness, which operates a co-located medical and recreational dispensary in Hudson, said business has been healthy on the medical side of things. He said, particularly, the spike in medical cards reported by the CCC during the recent two-month nonessential business lockdown, which temporarily shuttered recreational sales in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus. From Morphew's vantage point, medical sales have been consistent, even before that spike. Like Cooper, he said medical consumers have better financial benefits and many of the new medical card holders will choose to renew their permits in the future. "They will continue using the medical cannabis program because there are multiple benefits," he said. Matthew Huron, CEO of Good Chemistry, which operates dispensaries in Colorado and Worcester, has a reputation for vocally and passionately supporting the medical side of legal cannabis. Like Morphew, he said medical sales have been steady – even increasing – since the shop first opened. "The number of medical patients we are seeing continues to moderately increase, although we do serve a larger number of adult-use customers," Huron said in an email. A nod to the inescapable overlap between medical and adult-use marijauna, he characterized the two as working together. When asked how the adult-use market has impacted the medical market, he said Good Chemistry's recreational operations help support the company's medical marijuana operations. "Medical cannabis has remained intact in other markets across the country, and we believe it will continue to do so because it addresses the needs of thousands of people who seek the benefits that medical cannabis provides," Huron said. Commission support CCC Executive Director Shawn Collins echoed similar sentiments, saying when the commission took over the medical marijuana program, there were about 59,000 registered patients. As of May 2020, there are roughly 80,000. That number, which includes the roughly 20,000 new registered patients signing up during this spring's non-essential business closure, suggests the program had stayed relatively consistent, even before the spike. That said, Collins said the commission tries to make a point of keeping an eye on the relative health of the medical marijuana industry, in large part to ensure patients retain and maintain access to medicine they rely on. Combined with moves meant to streamline the patient registration process, the CCC is making medical cannabis a priority, he said. As for municipal regulations butting heads with medical dispensary operators, Collins said it has always been important for those types of debates to take place at the local level. "That's the most appropriate venue for these conversations," Collins said. To opponents of legal cannabis, the propensity for some marijuana users to quickly opt-in to the medical side of things when recreational sales were temporarily banned statewide might serve to diminish the argument cannabis is, in fact, a substance to be used medicinally. But Cooper compared it to those who use over- the-counter versions of drugs vs. those who use prescriptions. Just because a product was obtained on the customer-facing side of the pharmacy doesn't necessarily make its impact less medicinal, he said. A selection of the products offered by Leicester dispensary Cultivate The grow room for Leicester marijuana dispensary Cultivate, where both medical and recreational cannabis is grown.

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