Out of the 33 states with medical marijuana, the cannabis advocacy group Americans For Safe Access ranked Maine\u2019s program as ninth best in the nation in 2018. And one dispensary group runs half of Maine\u2019s dispensaries: the Wellness Connection of Maine.<\/p>\n
With\u00a0four locations<\/a>\u00a0in Portland, Brewer, Gardiner and Thomaston, the\u00a0Wellness Connection of Maine<\/a>\u00a0has helped propel the state to the pinnacle of medical marijuana by prioritizing professionalism and education above all else.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever we do, from selecting decorations for the interior to thinking about our educational outreach, the goal is to support and assist patients as they get to know this medicine,\u201d says Becky DeKeuster, the co-founder and director of community and education at the Wellness Connection.<\/p>\n DeKeuster says that the Wellness Connection follows a philosophy she learned while working for the\u00a0Berkeley Patients Group<\/a>\u00a0in California. \u201cWe think of our dispensaries as community centers,\u201d she says, \u201cas gathering spaces that are educationally based.\u201d<\/p>\n So, since its founding in 2011, the Wellness Connection has participated in city commerce meetings. They have educated physicians on the\u00a0endocannabinoid system<\/a>\u00a0and patients on their rights when talking to physicians about cannabis. They have opened dispensaries in buildings that have sat vacant for decades to revitalize local economies. They\u2019re looking to create a cannabis hospice program for their state\u2019s many senior citizens. And they have donated $60,000 to charities \u2014 mostly healthcare related \u2014 across the state.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re grateful that we can make these donations, but it\u2019s about so much more than dollars and cents,\u201d said Patricia Rosi, CEO of the Wellness Connection of Maine. \u201cIt\u2019s about being part of and connecting with the community in positive ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Upon entering one of the Wellness Connection\u2019s four dispensaries, a patient feels the embodiment of this community-oriented philosophy, coalescing with the unique influence the state of Maine and its medical marijuana laws wield.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maine legalized medical marijuana in 1999, but only passed a measure to allow dispensaries in 2009, and has yet to systematically capitalize on the\u00a0recreational legalization measures of 2016<\/a>. However, while Maine does have a long history of medical marijuana, the state\u2019s program still doesn\u2019t enjoy the sort of mainstream exposure and acceptance that Western states like California do.<\/p>\n \u201cIn New England, when we got started in 2009, there was certainly skepticism from the public, and so each dispensary is sensitive to the need to present a very professional front, but not in a cold or clinical way,\u201d says DeKeuster. \u201cWhen folks come to us, they get to sit down with one of our member liaisons for an intake interview that takes as long as the patient needs to be comfortable about the laws and the medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Maine has a long tradition of people cultivating for themselves, DeKeuster says, partially because it has a small, largely rural population spread over a large geographical area. Thanks to the history of self-cultivation, DeKeuster says the state has been on the cutting edge of innovation in terms of the varieties of cannabis they grow, which the Wellness Connection takes advantage of to cross-breed strains that best fit their patients\u2019 needs. The group of dispensaries has a large growing facility in Auburn that they will be tripling the size of to 60,000 square feet in 2016 to keep up with demand. They also do not use pesticides, and have self-imposed lab testing of all their products for mold, mildew and potency levels.<\/p>\n Maine\u2019s population has responded positively to the Wellness Connection. Their dispensaries are so open, bright and clean \u2014 with cushy black armchairs, tan hardwood floors and pea-green walls \u2014 that DeKeuster says most people walk in and say, \u201cWow, this was not what I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n When their doors first opened, the dispensary group had about 200 patients and five employees. Four years later, they have over 11,000 patients and 65 employees. And there is no average customer of the Wellness Connection of Maine, DeKeuster says. Instead, people across the socioeconomic spectrum, across job industries and across all ages visit their dispensaries. \u201cThere is not any one descriptor that I would use for our patient base other than \u2018representative of Maine,\u2019\u201d says DeKeuster.<\/p>\n \u201cI think again people might forget about us here in the upper right-hand corner of the country, and in many ways that\u2019s okay,\u201d says DeKeuster. \u201cMaine is a small state, we can\u2019t forget that we are a model\u2026 We need to keep patients front and center, and we need to keep striving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, what\u2019s your favorite dispensary?<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 19 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The post Dispensary Profile: Wellness Connection of Maine Puts Patients First<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Out of the 33 states with medical marijuana, the cannabis advocacy group Americans For Safe Access ranked Maine\u2019s program as ninth best in the nation in 2018. And one dispensary group runs half of Maine\u2019s dispensaries: the Wellness Connection of Maine. With\u00a0four locations\u00a0in Portland, Brewer, Gardiner and Thomaston, the\u00a0Wellness ConnectionContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1840,141,5755,85,781,7589,717,3439,362,10529],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36482"}],"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\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36483,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36482\/revisions\/36483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Dispensary Profile: Wellness Connection of Maine Puts Patients First<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"