Taylor Constantine, Dragonfly director of analysis and growth and extraction, reveals a big bag of Strawberry Kush hashish buds on the Dragonfly processing plant in South Salt Lake on Friday, March 24, 2023. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
A ladybug, used for pure pest management, walks on a hashish plant on the Dragonfly Wellness Develop Facility in Moroni on Friday, April 28, 2023. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Jars of medical hashish flowers are pictured on the Dragonfly processing plant in South Salt Lake on Friday, March 24, 2023. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Robert Stosich talks with Dragonfly Wellness achievement supervisor Dio Bone about his choices as he purchases medical hashish for the primary time at Dragonfly Wellness in Salt Lake Metropolis on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Stosich hopes to make use of medical hashish for nervousness and bipolar dysfunction. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
KindlyMD founder and CEO Tim Pickett, a doctor assistant, poses for a portrait in his workplace at KindlyMD in Murray on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Kerra Davis helps her son Reed Davis after he fell off his bike outdoors their dwelling in West Jordan on Friday, July 21, 2023. Davis, a mom of three, makes use of medical hashish to deal with power ache from endometriosis, pelvic congestion syndrome and arthritis. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Kerra Davis exhales after utilizing a medical hashish vape pen outdoors her dwelling in West Jordan on Friday, July 21, 2023. Davis, a mom of three, makes use of medical hashish to deal with power ache from endometriosis, pelvic congestion syndrome and arthritis. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Robert Stosich consults with Dragonfly pharmacist Kevin Baumgartner at Dragonfly Wellness in Salt Lake Metropolis on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Stosich hopes to make use of medical hashish for nervousness and bipolar dysfunction. Behind them, folks line as much as apply for his or her medical hashish card. The required go to with a professional medical supplier, which might price a whole lot of dollars and isn't coated by insurance coverage, was supplied at a deep low cost throughout the Utah Grown occasion. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Gabe Flores, Dragonfly high quality management agent, places stickers on hashish packaging on the Dragonfly processing plant in South Salt Lake on Friday, March 24, 2023. Stickers are wanted to stick to quickly altering guidelines and laws for hashish packaging. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Narith Panh, Dragonfly Wellness chief working officer, checks out a hashish plant in a develop room on the Dragonfly Wellness Develop Facility in Moroni on Friday, April 28, 2023. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
In a nondescript constructing in an industrial part of South Salt Lake, there’s a giant bag of weed labeled Blue Dream — a number of luggage, really — saved in giant Igloo coolers in a cold room referred to as the vault.
Meticulously cultivated on a former turkey farm in Sanpete County, the hand-trimmed marijuana buds might be machine-dropped into pouches containing 3.5 grams of the traditional hashish pressure. A courier will ship the packets to the Dragonfly Wellness pharmacy in Salt Lake Metropolis to be bought beneath its Betty label for $38 a pop.
Recognized to have highly effective uplifting results that may scale back ache and improve the urge for food, Blue Dream has a fruity style with hints of cinnamon and pine, in response to the Dragonfly web site. It incorporates 18.25% tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the key psychoactive part in hashish, and 20.26% of THCA, essentially the most plentiful nonpsychoactive cannabinoid discovered within the plant.
One among Utah’s practically 72,000 medical hashish cardholders will finally purchase the pouch of flower and — if used legally beneath Utah regulation — grind it right into a dry herb vaporizer to inhale as a remedy for ache, irritation or despair. The state prohibits utilizing an open flame to warmth marijuana to smoke medicinally or recreationally.
A ladybug, used for pure pest management, walks on a hashish plant on the Dragonfly Wellness Develop Facility in Moroni on Friday, April 28, 2023.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Although it’s not extensively promoted, the Beehive State has a rising medical hashish trade. Dragonfly Wellness opened the state’s first pharmacy three years in the past this previous March. Its seed-to-sale operation consists of the develop farm in Sanpete County and the processing plant in South Salt Lake.
Dragonfly chief working officer Narith Panh runs into folks on a regular basis who do not know hashish gummies, flower, tinctures, capsules, concentrates, topicals and vape cartridges are legally bought within the state.
“It’s type of like this combat membership,” he stated. “No person needs to speak about it, no person needs to report on it. It’s type of this sticky topic. Solely people who find themselves really in this system know in regards to the challenges and the alternatives on the market.”
Conservative Utah figured to be the final state to legalize marijuana in any kind.
The Republican-controlled state Legislature permitted using CBD oil to deal with folks with epilepsy in 2014, however a GOP senator’s subsequent makes an attempt to increase using hashish to different well being situations failed over the following two years. Proponents launched an initiative to get medical hashish on the 2018 election poll, the place it confronted opposition from the Utah Medical Affiliation, Salt Lake Chamber, Utah Episcopal Diocese, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and regulation enforcement.
Proposition 2 managed to cross however Republican legislative leaders had signaled their intent to rewrite the regulation. Within the months previous to the election, the Utah Sufferers Coalition and the Libertas Institute, each of which backed Prop 2, started conversations with GOP legislative leaders, the medical affiliation and church representatives, amongst others. They negotiated a invoice the Legislature handed in particular session quickly after the general public vote.
After the contentious years-long public debate, Utah’s budding medical hashish program appeared to go underground after lastly getting off the bottom in 2020.
What has occurred since? Do Utahns see hashish as legit drugs? Who makes use of it and why? May it result in authorized leisure use?
Jars of medical hashish flowers are pictured on the Dragonfly processing plant in South Salt Lake on Friday, March 24, 2023.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
It’s nonetheless new
Many within the medical hashish group say the 4-year-old program serves residents properly, however may enhance.
“Yearly, we’re working into points and we’re attempting to repair them,” stated Desiree Hennessy, govt director of the Utah Sufferers Coalition, which helped drive the poll initiative.
Sufferers say prices are excessive for the merchandise and for state-required visits with medical suppliers in a principally money enterprise. Some merchandise aren’t available, forcing clients to pharmacy hop, look to the black market or exit of state. Critics discover the state laws and licensing charges too onerous, making medical hashish a troublesome enterprise to run when mixed with restricted entry to financing and no tax write-offs, since marijuana stays unlawful beneath federal regulation.
And concern persists that medical marijuana in Utah may result in legalized leisure use, regardless of no organized motion in that path.
“My thought course of has all the time been, and those who I’ve labored with on this area, is that if now we have the perfect medical program that we will have, we really feel like that may forestall the necessity for leisure,” stated Utah Senate Majority Chief Evan Vickers, R-Cedar Metropolis, a pharmacist by occupation and a pacesetter in establishing the state’s medical hashish program.
Colorado is certainly one of 4 bordering states, together with Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, the place leisure marijuana is authorized — and the place medicinal hashish has change into misplaced as a result of dispensaries cater to that crowd, one thing Utah is attempting to keep away from.
“We don’t wish to get to that time the place the medical sufferers are being put within the backseat as a result of we’re pushing so exhausting to permit for grownup use, which I don’t know if that may ever occur right here,” stated Alyssa Smailes, govt director of the Utah Hashish Affiliation, certainly one of two trade commerce teams within the state.
A Deseret Information/Hinckley Institute of Politics ballot discovered practically 4 in 10 Utahns are involved medical hashish may result in authorized leisure use, whereas about 6 in 10 don't share that concern.
The survey of 800 registered Utah voters performed in April additionally discovered 40% consider marijuana ought to be authorized for each leisure and medical use, whereas 51% say it ought to be medical solely.
A rising trade
General medical hashish gross sales in Utah totaled $118.7 million in 2022, a 59% enhance over the earlier yr, in response to knowledge revealed by the Utah Division of Well being and Human Companies. Gross sales for the primary six months of this yr are $68.5 million. The state rakes $3 off each pharmacy transaction. Final yr that got here to $2.4 million. Utah took in $4.7 million final yr, together with pharmacy licensing charges and affected person card charges.
By comparability, medical hashish gross sales in neighboring Colorado topped $230 million final yr, in response to the Colorado Division of Income. However it’s a drop within the bucket in a state the place the mixed authorized medical and leisure marijuana retail gross sales reached practically $1.8 billion in 2022.
Utah is amongst 38 states the place medical marijuana is authorized. Twenty-two states additionally enable leisure use. Roughly three-quarters of the U.S. inhabitants lives close to a medical marijuana program. Federal regulation prohibits using whole-plant hashish or its derivatives for any objective. However CBD derived from the hemp plant (lower than 0.3% THC) is authorized.
State officers have reported nearly no severe crime related to medical hashish in Utah. Some youngsters hopped the fence and stole a single plant from a farm. They have been caught after they tried to promote it to an undercover officer.
Utah’s medical hashish program is likely one of the extra restrictive within the nation in comparison with different medical-only states corresponding to Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Two authorities businesses oversee the cultivation, processing and sale of hashish within the state. The Utah Division of Agriculture and Meals runs the Utah Medical Hashish Program and the Utah Division of Well being and Human Companies manages the Heart for Medical Hashish.
All hashish bought as drugs within the state have to be grown and processed in Utah.
Dragonfly Wellness has one of many eight cultivating licenses allowed beneath state regulation. It purchased 60 acres in Sanpete County, the place it has a 50,000-square-foot indoor, climate-controlled greenhouse the place 1000's of vegetation thrive beneath high-intensity LED lights. Smaller greenhouses are beneath building and a two-acre photo voltaic panel is coming on-line. A series-link fence topped with barbed wire surrounds the power. Safety guards patrol at evening.
All of the vegetation, which beneath state regulation have to be individually tagged, are clones from mom vegetation to keep up genetics distinctive to the varied strains of hashish. Lots of of ladybugs alight on the supple petals to regulate pests on the pesticide-free farm. It takes about 15 weeks for vegetation to flower.
Cody Henderson, Dragonfly director of cultivation, says the corporate goals to be a “boutique” grower. For him, hashish is greater than a medication.
“I like the plant. I find it irresistible in all probability like an orchid breeder loves orchids simply because there’s a lot genetic variation. It’s one of the hybridized vegetation on the planet at this level. It’s been crossbred one million instances,” he says, reveling within the numerous canopies, colours and aromas hashish vegetation produce.
In 2022, the eight farms in Utah, totaling practically 280,000 sq. ft of indoor area and 5 acres of out of doors area in 12 areas throughout seven counties, produced 111,800 kilos of biomass and provided 13 amenities that manufacture, package deal and label hashish merchandise.
There are 15 licensed hashish pharmacies within the state, principally alongside the Wasatch Entrance. Every has a special vibe, form of a mixture between an Apple retailer and Starbucks. A number of have armed safety guards inside. Some like Dragonfly are regionally owned, whereas others function in a number of states, together with the multibillion-dollar Curaleaf, which lately introduced a $20 million deal to purchase Deseret Wellness’ three pharmacies in Utah, giving it 4 within the state.
Curaleaf CEO Matt Darin referred to as Utah an vital rising marketplace for the corporate, which has companies in 19 states. By e-mail, he predicted Utah’s medical hashish program will develop as residents “change into extra comfy and acquainted” with it.
The corporate additionally sells leisure marijuana in states the place it's authorized.
“Authorized, adult-use hashish means simply that, and we finally assist any measure to make sure that hashish is examined, regulated and age-gated by way of the authorized trade,” Darin stated, noting about two-thirds of Individuals assist legalization of hashish.
The state agriculture division, which inherited oversight of the pharmacies and couriers from the well being division this summer time, inspects hashish farms and processing amenities at the very least each three weeks. By comparability, different industries the division oversees have an inspector present up two or thrice a yr; meat packers have an inspector on-site day-after-day.
Final yr, the division performed 246 inspections of hashish farms and processors, resulting in 52 citations and 122 warning letters. Violations vary from stock counts being off to a bottle being on the mistaken shelf.
“We’re not attempting to beat them up. We simply need them to do it the fitting manner for our sufferers and everybody else within the trade and for our state,” stated Cody James, supervisor of Utah’s Industrial Hemp and Medical Hashish Program.
All vegetation and merchandise have to be examined utilizing random samples chosen by the inspectors on the unbiased or state-run lab. Utah is exclusive in that the testing labs usually are not tied to the businesses that promote the product, stated Wealthy Oborn, director of the Utah Heart for Medical Hashish, including, it’s a “scary Wild West” in different states.
Who makes use of medical hashish in Utah?
The variety of Utahns who've medical hashish playing cards has grown annually since 2020, per state well being division knowledge. However 40% of sufferers have dropped out of this system.
“It’s not a scarcity of need as a lot as it's not having the ability to afford it. I don’t blame them,” stated Hennessy, whose advocacy group gives subsidies for sufferers.
As of July, 71,850 Utahns held playing cards, although the expansion seems to be flattening. Packages usually high out at 1% to three% of a state’s inhabitants. Utah is round 2%.
“We’re serving extra sufferers than I anticipated to see really,” Vickers stated.
Dragonfly Wellness added practically 500 to the entire throughout a 4/20 occasion in April — April 20 has change into a vacation of types within the hashish tradition — geared toward getting extra folks signed up, together with West Jordan resident Robert Stosich. He stated he wasn’t certain easy methods to get a card earlier than, though his docs informed him he may give hashish a strive.
Stosich, 48, has nervousness and bipolar dysfunction. He stated his legs “go loopy bouncing up and down” when he will get anxious. After a success or two from a vape pen, the shaking stops, he stated a few days after utilizing medical marijuana for the primary time.
Robert Stosich talks with Dragonfly Wellness achievement supervisor Dio Bone about his choices as he purchases medical hashish for the primary time at Dragonfly Wellness in Salt Lake Metropolis on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Stosich hopes to make use of medical hashish for nervousness and bipolar dysfunction.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
To get a card, sufferers should meet with a professional medical skilled — a medical physician, doctor assistant or nurse practitioner who has undergone 4 hours of state-required coaching — to acquire a advice for hashish. An preliminary go to with a supplier, which usually isn’t coated by insurance coverage, averages $201 — money solely, in response to the state well being division. A renewal analysis averages $128.
Sufferers should have a qualifying situation, which incorporates power ache, PTSD, autism, epilepsy, ALS, most cancers, Alzheimer’s illness, a number of sclerosis, Crohn’s illness, nausea and uncommon and terminal sicknesses.
Greater than three-fourths of Utah cardholders use medical hashish for persistent ache, with PTSD a distant second and nausea and most cancers following that.
Most Utah cardholders are ages 21 to 50. About two-thirds have made a number of purchases prior to now 30 days, well being division knowledge present. Vape cartridges and pens are the largest sellers, adopted by flower and edibles.
State lawmakers lately made the hashish card, which prices $15, good for one yr, up from six months beneath earlier regulation.
Suppliers can advocate hashish remedy to about 950 sufferers beneath state regulation. At the moment, there are 959 permitted suppliers statewide, solely 236 of them docs. Most are doctor assistants or nurse practitioners.
KindlyMD founder and CEO Tim Pickett, a doctor assistant, poses for a portrait in his workplace at KindlyMD in Murray on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Is hashish drugs?
Society has but to deal with hashish as drugs, stated Tim Pickett, a doctor assistant who opened a hashish speciality clinic in Murray referred to as KindlyMD.
Pickett was referred to as a “pot doc” on tv. He stated he doesn’t care what folks name him however “I believe that was a little bit disrespectful to the sufferers who would come see us.”
When KindlyMD opened, 8 in 10 sufferers had tried marijuana or have been common customers. Now, Pickett stated, about 40% have by no means tried it.
“It comes right down to the truth that it’s actually not in regards to the hashish. On the finish of the day, it’s about empowering sufferers to make decisions about their very own well being care,” he stated.
Pickett offers Utah’s program principally excessive marks, however stated he needs it have been “extra medical.” If a 62-year-old Parkinson’s affected person with quite a lot of muscle spasms and power ache feels prefer it’s a leisure program masked as a medical program, that affected person gained’t select to strive hashish.
One method to make medical hashish extra legit is for docs to deal with it like every other remedy, Pickett stated. Some suppliers who take a holistic method and embrace hashish of their regular course of care invoice insurance coverage firms for workplace visits, that means sufferers solely have a co-pay, one thing KindlyMD began this spring.
“That’s the important thing to legitimizing hashish,” he stated.
Additional scientific research would additionally foster extra understanding of the plant’s medicinal capabilities.
In conservative Utah, training and analysis, together with strict qc and laws, would assist additional take away stigma and make it accessible to those that want it, particularly as an alternative to opiate drugs and different prescribed drugs, Darin stated.
Vickers referred to as hashish an “attention-grabbing world” as a result of it’s an unlawful substance beneath federal regulation and the federal authorities blocks quite a lot of the analysis that could possibly be executed. Utah, he stated, has “discovered methods to get round that” with laws permitting medical research on the College of Utah and agricultural research at Utah State College.
Proponents tout medical hashish’ many makes use of, together with treating ache, nausea and vomiting, rising urge for food and as a sleep assist, amongst different issues.
“It’s like a pharmacy in a flower,” Pickett stated.
However Pickett stated there will be downsides to hashish use. Affordable knowledge present that about 8% of people that use it usually are going to be considerably addicted, he stated, including no person likes to speak about it as a result of it’s a “nonaddictive substance.”
There are individuals who use it an excessive amount of, he stated, describing a affected person who was spending a lot cash on hashish that it affected her job and her capacity to care for her household. “No person likes to speak about that,” Pickett stated.
Additionally, vaping and inhaling numerous hashish causes irritation within the lungs, he stated.
The Mayo Clinic stated additional research is required to find out if hashish is protected, however potential unintended effects of medical marijuana embrace elevated coronary heart charge, dizziness, impaired focus and reminiscence, slower response instances and drug-to-drug interactions.
Kerra Davis helps her son Reed Davis after he fell off his bike outdoors their dwelling in West Jordan on Friday, July 21, 2023. Davis, a mom of three, makes use of medical hashish to deal with power ache from endometriosis, pelvic congestion syndrome and arthritis.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Does medical hashish price an excessive amount of?
One of many largest complaints amongst sufferers and the primary purpose folks don’t renew their hashish playing cards is the price of the remedy.
Kerra Davis, a stay-at-home mother of three boys, estimates she spends about $300 a month to deal with power ache from endometriosis, pelvic congestion syndrome and arthritis.
“It’s positively costly,” she stated.
Davis purchased hashish on the black market or out of state earlier than Utah’s pharmacies opened. She stated it helped her get off the dozen pharmaceutical medication she was taking for her medical situations.
“It actually modified my life. I acquired myself again, who I'm again,” she stated.
Davis, 36, goes to at the very least three completely different pharmacies to seek out the vape cartridges and tinctures she makes use of, which she finds a little bit irritating. She additionally stated it’s “ridiculous” how a lot some medical suppliers cost to advocate a hashish card.
Kerra Davis exhales after utilizing a medical hashish vape pen outdoors her dwelling in West Jordan on Friday, July 21, 2023. Davis, a mom of three, makes use of medical hashish to deal with power ache from endometriosis, pelvic congestion syndrome and arthritis.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Sarah (not her actual identify), a 34-year-old mom of three youngsters who was recognized with breast most cancers in 2018, has a Utah hashish card however doesn’t use it.
Her analytical husband put collectively a spreadsheet evaluating costs, taxes, gasoline and time in Utah and different states. She discovered it cheaper to drive to Oregon, the place she spends $500 each six months to refill on remedy. She stated the identical $500 would purchase a month’s provide in Utah.
“I wish to comply with the regulation as a lot as I can. I simply can’t afford to buy it in Utah,” she stated.
The Utah Hashish Affiliation and the Utah Hashish Co-Op did a worth comparability final summer time of the three mostly bought merchandise — vape carts, flower and gummies — in 19 states. The typical price for these gadgets among the many states was $134.25. Utah got here in at $130.85, however a lot larger than neighboring Colorado and Nevada. Oregon, the place Sarah buys her remedy, was not a part of the comparability.
A Utah Division of Well being and Human Companies survey final December of practically 9,000 sufferers, medical suppliers, advocates and medical hashish pharmacy representatives discovered a excessive diploma of satisfaction with the state’s program.
It stated 68% are pleased with their entry to medical hashish pharmacies and residential supply companies. It additionally discovered that 61% of sufferers say that pharmacies in Utah constantly have the merchandise they want and 57% say the pharmacies have a great selection.
Robert Stosich consults with Dragonfly pharmacist Kevin Baumgartner at Dragonfly Wellness in Salt Lake Metropolis on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Stosich hopes to make use of medical hashish for nervousness and bipolar dysfunction. Behind them, folks line as much as apply for his or her medical hashish card. The required go to with a professional medical supplier, which might price a whole lot of dollars and isn't coated by insurance coverage, was supplied at a deep low cost throughout the Utah Grown occasion.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
What function do pharmacists play?
Utah is the one state that requires pharmacies to have a licensed pharmacist on web site who does a free session with every new affected person. Pharmacy transactions have been cash-only till the state lately allowed using debit playing cards. All gross sales have to be executed in particular person.
Some query the necessity for an onsite pharmacist, contending they're “out of their factor” in terms of data of hashish and solely add prices that get handed right down to sufferers.
Oborn stated the pharmacist “legitimizes” the operation as a medical service.
Panh, the Dragonfly COO, agrees that from a enterprise perspective, paying a pharmacist makes the merchandise dearer. However from a patient-first perspective, he stated, it offers a degree of consolation.
As a result of marijuana use stays unlawful beneath federal regulation, most docs defer to pharmacists to present sufferers details about medical hashish, stated Kevin Baumgartner, a Dragonfly pharmacist who beforehand labored in conventional grocery retailer pharmacies.
Pharmacists can’t legally give a affected person a prescription however can advocate a remedy routine.
Gabe Flores, Dragonfly high quality management agent, places stickers on hashish packaging on the Dragonfly processing plant in South Salt Lake on Friday, March 24, 2023. Stickers are wanted to stick to quickly altering guidelines and laws for hashish packaging.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
An excessive amount of or simply sufficient regulation?
In different areas, although, Panh finds the state’s laws heavy-handed. He says it’s “10 instances worse” than the regulation of alcohol in Utah beneath the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Management, which lately modified its identify to the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Companies.
Panh believes the state places extra effort into controlling the medical hashish area than it does to offering a service.
“We will’t even transfer a fridge to the opposite aspect of the room with out anyone popping out to examine and ensure we did it proper,” he stated.
Packaging and promoting of hashish merchandise has been a degree of competition between the state and the trade.
Lately, Dragonfly had a employee inserting stickers over pouches that confirmed a picture of the define of two hashish tablets as a result of it violated state regulation. The employee was additionally including a stick-on warning label.
Brandon Forsyth, Utah’s hemp and medical hashish division director, stated folks utilizing medical hashish are sometimes aged or have a well being problem which may make it troublesome to learn the effective print on the label.
“We’re not simply needlessly creating guidelines. We’re attempting to guard sufferers and we’re attempting to reduce the danger to the general public,” he stated.
The state needs hashish merchandise to appear like drugs. It bans colourful packaging and promoting which may enchantment to youngsters.
Vickers stated the hashish area has the potential for corruption and misuse so he welcomes extra scrutiny. He referred to as Utah’s program a piece in progress.
Oborn, the state’s medical hashish middle director, stated he believes Utah has a great system in place to make sure not solely affected person entry with the assistance of well being care suppliers however that hashish is accounted from seed to sale.
“Ultimately,” he stated, “it’s getting the affected person related with skilled professionals, stopping diversion and educating sufferers and medical suppliers on the well being results of utilizing hashish.”
Narith Panh, Dragonfly Wellness chief working officer, checks out a hashish plant in a develop room on the Dragonfly Wellness Develop Facility in Moroni on Friday, April 28, 2023.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information