Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
Medical marijuana is now legal in Florida, but a Pensacola woman says getting it is a hardship. She sometimes has to wait for days or drive hundreds of miles to get the cannabis a doctor recommended.
A vacant building sitting at Davis Highway and Texar Drive will eventually become the medical cannabis dispensary for a company called Trulieve. It's being renovated right now. A health department inspection is scheduled in late March; after that Trulieve says they will be ready to open.
For Amanda Coshatt, that day can't come soon enough. She's a mother of two, whose life was severely disrupted by PTSD. After a 90-day waiting period, she qualified for medical marijuana to help relieve her symptoms. But right now, the nearest dispensary is in Tallahassee.
Trulieve does make deliveries, but that's only one day a week, for a limited number of patients. If the delivery schedule is full when Coshatt calls, her options are extremely limited. Coshatt said, "So the only choice I have.....go without my medicine, or drive to Tallahassee. Three hours there, an hour within town to get it, and then three hours back home."
She said driving is difficult for her, but impossible for others. She continued, "There's people who have cancer with chronic pain that need that pain relief, having to wait a week or two to get it, because Truleive can only do so much."
Coshatt said patients like her need answers, so we went to the CEO of Trulieve, Kim Rivers. Rivers said, "I understand that from a patient's perspective, sometimes it may seem confusing, absolutely. But I will tell you that there is a method to the madness behind the scenes."
Rivers says they've hired a full-time logistics coordinator to run drive teams across the state. Once the Pensacola dispensary is open, she says there will be same-day delivery or the option to pick up in person. She continued, "And again, that's why we are so focused on those areas where we know it's been a little less than smooth 100% of the time...getting those physical locations open as quickly as possible, so that patients don't have that concern any longer."
Right now, there are moratoriums on medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of Gulf Breeze and in Okaloosa County. Both Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties have discussed moratoriums, but have not put them in place. The city of Fort Walton Beach is moving forward with an ordinance to regulate dispensaries.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Patient Struggles To Get Medical Marijuana
Author: Laura Hussey
Contact: 850.456.3333
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: 3 WEAR TV
A vacant building sitting at Davis Highway and Texar Drive will eventually become the medical cannabis dispensary for a company called Trulieve. It's being renovated right now. A health department inspection is scheduled in late March; after that Trulieve says they will be ready to open.
For Amanda Coshatt, that day can't come soon enough. She's a mother of two, whose life was severely disrupted by PTSD. After a 90-day waiting period, she qualified for medical marijuana to help relieve her symptoms. But right now, the nearest dispensary is in Tallahassee.
Trulieve does make deliveries, but that's only one day a week, for a limited number of patients. If the delivery schedule is full when Coshatt calls, her options are extremely limited. Coshatt said, "So the only choice I have.....go without my medicine, or drive to Tallahassee. Three hours there, an hour within town to get it, and then three hours back home."
She said driving is difficult for her, but impossible for others. She continued, "There's people who have cancer with chronic pain that need that pain relief, having to wait a week or two to get it, because Truleive can only do so much."
Coshatt said patients like her need answers, so we went to the CEO of Trulieve, Kim Rivers. Rivers said, "I understand that from a patient's perspective, sometimes it may seem confusing, absolutely. But I will tell you that there is a method to the madness behind the scenes."
Rivers says they've hired a full-time logistics coordinator to run drive teams across the state. Once the Pensacola dispensary is open, she says there will be same-day delivery or the option to pick up in person. She continued, "And again, that's why we are so focused on those areas where we know it's been a little less than smooth 100% of the time...getting those physical locations open as quickly as possible, so that patients don't have that concern any longer."
Right now, there are moratoriums on medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of Gulf Breeze and in Okaloosa County. Both Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties have discussed moratoriums, but have not put them in place. The city of Fort Walton Beach is moving forward with an ordinance to regulate dispensaries.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Patient Struggles To Get Medical Marijuana
Author: Laura Hussey
Contact: 850.456.3333
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: 3 WEAR TV