In the process of setting up their recreational cannabis industry, it’s nice to see that Massachusetts hasn’t forgotten about the patients who are a part of the state’s medical marijuana program. Medical cannabis was legalized in 2012, but it has been a very slow process to get it started. There are only a dozen or so dispensaries in the entire state. This has left the state’s tens of thousands of patients with few options on where to get their medicine – and for those with mobility issues or who live nowhere near a dispensary, it could potentially mean going without.
A Brockton dispensary called In Good Health has been working on a solution to this issue – and with the help of the state they will soon be offering statewide delivery services for those patients who have a hard time getting to a dispensary themselves. While one other dispensary, Patriot Care, has already been offering delivery services, they are only available to those in the Boston and Lowell areas. This will be the first company to offer delivery statewide, and they are offering same day delivery service as well.
“We have proudly and successfully served thousands of patients since our dispensary opened in September 2015, but it has become apparent that a segment of the population has been underserved, such as patients who are too ill to visit a dispensary or who live several towns away from the nearest dispensary,” In Good Health’s president, David Noble, said in a statement.
Patients who are registered with the state’s medical marijuana program will be able to order products varying from regular cannabis flower to oils and edibles, among other products. For now, deliveries will require orders that are a minimum of $100 and will also have a delivery fee of $35 to $75, likely depending on where in the state they will be delivering to. And for now, at least, they will not be delivering to the islands of Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard. While most legal marijuana transactions are still handled in cash, orders for delivery will require debit or credit card payment before they send out the order.
“A delivery service is what patients have been dying and begging for,” said Nichole Snow, executive of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, which represents medical marijuana patients. “I’m not sure they’ll be able to take on the entirety of Massachusetts, but I’m looking forward to seeing how successful they are and I hope this is a good sign of things to come.”
In order to meet the demands of statewide delivery, In Good Health has recently doubled their cultivation efforts – and they are in the process of finding and obtaining two new retail locations throughout the state. Both of those moves will certainly help them to provide delivery to the entire state, which is clearly a much needed service, and offering same day delivery certainly makes the somewhat high fees and minimum orders worth it. This is a great step forward for Massachusetts’ medical marijuana program, especially amongst all the chaos that comes with trying to implement the newly legal recreational cannabis industry as well.
Good Business, good protection of the public, good means to enable those with serious health problems to obtain medicine and GOOD WAY TO KEEP IMPAIRED FOLKS off the roads.
Responsible users of marijuana, either for medical purposes or for recreation, do not drive. For those who require a continual use of marijuana to treat significant health problems–this can create a barrier to obtain the medicine. Delivery solves this. Thank you. This service helps everyone.