Utah Proposes Adding Five More Dispensaries
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]U[/dropcap]tah lawmakers are considering drafting a bill that would make amendments to its existing medical cannabis program, by increasing the number of private “pharmacies” from seven to 12. The new changes would also allow for the home delivery of medical cannabis. According to a staff handout delivered to lawmakers on Aug. 21, these are the changes currently under consideration in legislature.
Last May, at the Utah State Legislature’s Health & Human Services Interim Committee, leaders announced that they will treat medical cannabis like any other prescription drug, including dispensing the plant in so-called pharmacies—which are essentially highly regulated dispensaries. The unique centralized system would allow patients to order cannabis and pick up orders from local health departments.
Recently though, a few county attorneys warned their health departments that dispensing cannabis would put them in violation of federal law. “We recognized there were some challenges there and some anxiety,” Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers told FOX 13.
Beyond increasing the number of dispensaries, the new amendments would redirect distribution in a more conventional way as done in other states. “By eliminating the very costly approach of the central fill, we substantially reduce the regulatory costs of Utah’s medical cannabis program, thereby reducing the surcharge that patients were going to be paying with higher prices,” Connor Boyack, president of the libertarian Libertas Institute, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Utah’s voter-approved Proposition 2 was replaced shortly after with a “compromise bill” that imposed a more restrictive approach—but it wasn’t the approach that voters approved.
If the new amendments are made, patients in Utah would have much better access to medical cannabis. Seven dispensaries are hardly enough to accommodate patients in a state with a population of over three million.
The distribution deadline looms in March 2020, but the patient portal model would be hard to implement. Deliveries to homes would make it easier for patient who would have to travel to a local health department in order to obtain medicine.
