L<\/span>ess than a month after opening, the Pennsylvania medical marijuana industry is basically out of pot. Dispensaries have been closing for days at a time as they wait for their allotment of the state\u2019s limited inventory. Since sales kicked off around Valentine\u2019s Day, every dispensary in the state has been purchasing their stock from one company. The winner of that golden ticket is Cresco Yeltrah.<\/p>\n Despite the state having already issued 12 cultivation licenses, with the last three coming this week, Cresco Yeltrah\u2019s cultivation facility remains the only place distributing to the state\u2019s patient base which reached 10,000 just before the turn of the year. And they aren\u2019t kidding anybody, they know they\u2019re behind the eight-ball.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re the only processed grower right now,\u201d Trent Hartley of Cresco Yeltrah told PA TV station WPXI.<\/a> \u201cIt puts a little pressure on us, obviously, to keep product on the shelf. We\u2019re doing the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n We reached out to Cresco Yeltrah and asked why they decided to temporarily put the entire Pennsylvania supply chain on their back.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look at this as medicine in patients\u2019 hands \u2014 we had no concept of pressure other than getting patients access to medicine as soon as we possibly could,\u201d Charlie Bachtell, co founder of Cresco Yeltrah told Cannabis Now. \u201cIn the last three weeks we\u2019ve helped thousands of PA residents to find relief and manage their medical ailments. It\u2019s hard to explain how rewarding that feels but it outweighs any sense of pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n So what gives? Is this a policy issue or just the hiccups of a 3-week-old market? We reached out to the Marijuana Policy Project<\/a> to find out. Their Legislative Counsel for Pennsylvania, Becky Dansky, explained that multiple things have contributed to the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cOne is that one producer was able to start sending out product long before the rest of them, which jumpstarted the market before it was ready,\u201d Dansky said an email.<\/p>\n She went on to note another issue is that flower is not yet allowed, which slows down the whole process. Plus, everything then needs to be sent through labs with costs that can run into the millions, which definitely bumps up the price on the products coming out them in the early going.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cIt looks like they will vote to add flower on April 9, but then it will still have to go through the rulemaking process,\u201d Dansky said. \u201cEstimates of when flower could be available are everywhere from this summer to next summer. Hopefully it will be sooner than later because that will help address supply and affordability issues.\u201d<\/p>\n The final big factor is the fact that the Department of Health decided to only issue half of the total permitted licenses. So instead of the 25 cultivator\/processors allowed by Act 16, they licensed 12.<\/p>\n \u201cThey also did the same thing with dispensary permits,\u201d said Dansky.<\/p>\n This whole problem will could inflate over time if production doesn\u2019t step up with Dansky saying estimates put the eligible patient population in Pennsylvania around 200,000 to 250,000.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course not all of those people will choose to participate,\u201d she said. \u201cI imagine, like most programs, once it is up and running they will need to add more permits.\u201d<\/p>\n Dansky closed by giving credit to Pennsylvania on the program\u2019s successes.<\/p>\n \u201cThey did have a much higher number of permits than most states in the area and with similar population sizes,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the first round of permits there were 12 grower\/processor permits and up to 150 possible dispensaries compared to New York\u2019s five to 25, New Jersey\u2019s six and Delaware\u2019s original one.\u201d<\/p>\n Americans For Safe Access<\/a> Legislative Counsel David Mangone echoed Dansky\u2019s breakdown of operations timelines and the young market.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve had well over 10,000 patients register for Pennsylvania\u2019s program, and when you have that many individuals in search of medicine with only one cultivation facility fully operational you are bound to run into supply and demand issues,\u201d said Mangone. \u201cNonetheless, Pennsylvania deserves credit for moving through its implementation process as quickly as it has.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the industries setbacks around the kickoff, at least the industry in Pennsylvania can feel safe. Governor Tom Wolf has been a very vocal opponent at the possibility of the Department of Justice\u2019s enforcing federal marijuana laws against state-licensed operators.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite backwards moves by the Trump administration, I will continue to protect cancer patients, kids with epilepsy, veterans with PTSD and all Pennsylvanians seeking relief from legal medical marijuana,\u201d Wolf said in a January statement.<\/a> \u201cIn Pennsylvania, we legalized medical marijuana in an overwhelming and bipartisan fashion, and we are months away from getting this medicine to patients that need it.\u201d<\/p>\n Philly.com\u2019s pot pundit and longtime activist Chris Goldstein has not been impressed with the rollout. He spoke with Cannabis Now about his concerns.<\/p>\n Addressing Cresco Yeltrah\u2019s permits in other states, Goldstein said, \u201cThe fact they\u2019re willing to set the price so high is really a nod to Big Pharma. This is exactly what Martin Shkreli did.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re selling oil that goes for $35 dollars a gram [in California] for $144 a gram in Pennsylvania, which is exactly a 410 percent increase,\u201d said Goldstein.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But could that just be them trying to recuperate costs while in their unique situation?<\/p>\n \u201cThey shouldn\u2019t be in a golden ticket situation,\u201d Goldstein said. \u201cPennsylvania is very different. In New Jersey and New York the limited suppliers jump on the phone and set the price like OPEC does with oil. So you\u2019re not going to get a lower price. What\u2019s different about Pennsylvania is the law, Act 16, puts the state at the table in the price fix. The commissioner of the medical marijuana program is supposed to be able to set some sort of price cap. This is going to evolve to be very interesting because where industry doesn\u2019t have price caps, so Pennsylvania would be the first fair pricing scheme to a limited number of providers.\u201d<\/p>\n Goldstein says when you have a time with a single grower with a single price, that\u2019s the time you execute that ability.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy because you\u2019ve only got one guy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/b><\/strong> have you experienced setbacks associated with your state\u2019s implementation of medical or adult-use marijuana programs?<\/p>\n The post Pennsylvania Runs Out of Medical Marijuana in 3 Weeks<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania medical marijuana industry is experiencing a shortage. Less than a month after opening, the Pennsylvania medical marijuana industry is basically out of pot. Dispensaries have been closing for days at a time as they wait for their allotment of the state\u2019s limited inventory. Since sales kicked off aroundContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,53,139,285,3643],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24353,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24352\/revisions\/24353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\nRead More: Pennsylvania Runs Out of Medical Marijuana in 3 Weeks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"