There is an interesting dynamic playing out in the seventeen states that allow both medical and adult use of cannabis products. Adult use is, for all intents and purposes, complete legalization. States that have embraced it have also opened a door to the corporatization of the industry. But what about other states?
Utah allows medical cannabis. It does not allow adult use. There, the medical cannabis industry is locally based. An organization like utahmarijuana.org sees local patients in Salt Lake City or Park City. Those patients are likely to use dispensaries located in those two cities.
In a corporate setting, dispensaries easily become chain operations with multiple locations in a single state. Expand far enough and you could have a chain extending across multiple states – or even entire regions of the country. The question is whether or not this is good for medical cannabis programs. Should medical cannabis go corporate or stay local?
From California to Utah
A recent Utah In the Weeds podcast from utahmarijuana.org’s Tim Pickett featured an entrepreneur who moved to Utah to begin a home delivery service. This enterprising business owner already had previous experience developing apps for food delivery. His intention was to start medical cannabis home delivery in California.
After giving it his best shot, he decided to take his business to Utah instead. He discovered that his pockets were not deep enough compete with much larger companies in the Golden State. His story perfectly illustrates the contrast between going corporate and staying local.
Greater Efficiency and Lower Prices
Corporations bring some undeniable benefits to the table. Among them are efficiency and lower prices. They manage both through the economics of scale. A large corporation can do things more efficiently because they can develop standards of operation consistent from one location to the next. They can offer lower pricing because their size allows them to buy for considerably less at the wholesale level.
The economics of scale are the engine that drives giants like Walmart and Amazon. Smaller, locally owned retailers have a challenging time competing against them for lack of resources. The same would likely happen if medical marijuana in Utah went corporate. It is already happening in California.
Losing the Personal Touch
Not everything the corporate model brings to the table is necessarily positive. One of the big negatives of corporatism is the loss of the personal touch. Corporations are large and impersonal out of necessity. Locally owned businesses tend to be just the opposite.
Utahmarijuana.org can take a very personal approach to helping patients obtain their Medical Cannabis Cards. They control their own destiny. Therefore, they can take as much time as necessary to work with each patient. That might not be the case if they were taken over by a corporate health system.
Corporate interests dictate maximum efficiency for maximum return. It is not hard to imagine a corporation dictating how many patients have to be seen in a given day. This would create a situation similar to what family doctors and GPs deal with on a daily basis. Quotas force doctors to push patients through as quickly as possible, thus eliminating the personal nature of the doctor-patient relationship.
The temptation to go corporate is largely financial. In exchange for giving up the benefits of locally owned business, communities get better prices and greater efficiency. But is it worth it? That’s up to medical cannabis patients and providers to decide. In the meantime, the states have to consider what they want to accomplish. If going corporate helps them reach their goals, you can bet they will make it happen.
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