PHOENIX — Marijuana is bringing in the green. When voters approved Proposition 207 last year, they opened the door for the recreational marijuana market to plant its roots in the state. As of March 15, the Arizona Department of Health Services issued licenses to sell recreational marijuana to 130 dispensaries across the state. Medical marijuana has been legal in Arizona since 1996, but now adults 21 years and older are allowed to purchase marijuana without a medical card and can possess up to one ounce at a time. Now that the recreational market is open, dispensaries are managing a wave of business and addressing new challenges.
Jared Deane, the General Manager of YiLo Superstore, a dispensary that specializes in edibles, said that sales are up despite facing shortages of supplies.
“Since the opening of the recreational market, our sales have risen exponentially,” Deane said. “We are seeing the same pattern that other states had when their recreational markets opened concerning supply issues. Everyone is trying to keep up as best they can.”
Other dispensaries are experiencing a rise in sales. Brittany Beaulieu, a manager at Local Joint, said that business has picked up substantially since they received their recreational license in January.
“Business has picked up and we are seeing more and more adult use customers every day,” Beaulieu said. “We see all walks of life, even pups. We are receiving lots of new [customers] daily who turn into regulars.”
To help promote the new market, dispensaries are increasing advertising wherever possible. Deane said that YiLo has utilized websites like “Leafly and Weedmaps” to advertise their products directly to customers. Beaulieu said that Local Joint is getting the word out in big ways.
“We just acquired some fun billboards on the [I-]10 and [I-]17, these help people take notice that we are around,” Beaulieu said. “We also advertise through AZ Marijuana which is an email blast to the whole state as well as the Cannabis Cactus Magazine.”
Local Joint is not alone, multiple dispensaries are advertising their availability up and down Arizona’s major highways. Before voters approved Prop 207, there was simply no way to advertise recreational marijuana because of state law. Now with legalization, the change has been hard not to notice. Stacy Pearson, a member of the Arizona Dispensaries Association, a group of industry members who work to better the marijuana industry’s practices, and who helped run the campaign for Smart and Safe Arizona that helped certify Prop 207 on the ballot, said that the high amount of advertising is part of the weed-friendly culture shift that’s occurred in Arizona over the last few years.
“People’s perception of marijuana has shifted, we are seeing that now as advertising is changing,” Pearson said. “People are more open to talking about it. If you just look at how the vote changed from when marijuana was on the ballot in 2016 compared to last year the story tells itself.”
However, opening up to the new market has posed an array of challenges.
Because of the influx of new customers, especially during the first week of adult use sales, some medicinal marijuana consumers were stuck waiting in long lines. Owners like Deane were aware of this, and came up with creative solutions.
“We did set up express services for our medical patient customers so they are shielded as much as possible from the recreational craze,” Deane said. “We are still here to help those who need and expect the care we have provided since our doors opened 5 years ago. Recreational is exciting and I am an advocate for cannabis normalcy, but our medical patients are our roots and the driving reason why we have recreational in the first place.”
Another challenge is keeping up with new state regulations like safety testing. The ADHS requires dispensaries to have their marijuana tested in labs to ensure that marijuana sold by dispensaries does not contain any pesticides, fungi or other harmful contaminants. According to Deane, this safety measure has caused delays on certain products.
“New testing standards were introduced just a few months ago and this is also causing delays in
products getting to the market” Deane said. “Very few labs are certified for these tests and the turnaround to get a product tested is very slow at the moment. Coupled with the huge wave of recreational demand has left many dispensaries short on products.”
The recreational market is only growing, and is leading the way for more Arizonans to engage in pot culture. Deane said that this is now the new normal.
“It’s really no different than any other store such as Walgreens or McDonald’s, the cannabis culture is diverse as diverse could be. Recreational really just multiplied the number of people able to shop.”
