Louisiana’s insular medical marijuana industry — which sees a flood of new customers and a spike in sales this year after smokeable flowers became legal — will continue to expand.
Earlier this month, the State Pharmacy Board notified seven of nine Louisiana legal marijuana dispensaries that they were eligible to open a “satellite” location. So far, the New Orleans pharmacy is the only one to submit formal plans; H&W Drug Store requests permission to open a store in Metairie.
Several other pharmacy owners are looking for new locations and say they have plans to open their satellite stores in the coming months.
And the New Orleans area will see another new pharmacy soon, after the Pharmacy Board goes through a bidding process to choose a second licensee for the area. Legislator and Governor John Bel Edwards refused to open the burgeoning market to new businesses this year, with one exception: the region with the highest population, the New Orleans region. This brings the number of licensed pharmacies to 10; there are only two licensed growers.
The expansion comes as the legal marijuana business expands its customer base. The number of patients in the program was more than 186% higher in the second quarter than a year earlier. And the number of prescriptions distributed increased by no less than 430%. The numbers indicate that the state’s nine pharmacies sell millions of dollars each quarter.
When the state’s medical marijuana program kicked off in 2019, uptake was slow and the list of restrictions was long. But in the intervening years, lawmakers have loosened the reins, allowing doctors to recommend marijuana for any medical condition they believe can be helped by marijuana, and patients to buy the smokeable flower that was once banned. The changes have made it a lucrative market for the few companies allowed to participate.
The nine existing pharmacy owners will continue to enjoy regional monopolies for the foreseeable future. Each who reaches 3,500 active patients may open a second location. The only two regions that have yet to reach that threshold are central Louisiana and northeastern Louisiana.
Ruston Henry, owner of H&W Drug Store in New Orleans, did not respond to calls for comment. But documents he has filed with the Pharmacy Board indicate that he wants to open a location at 5055 Veterans Blvd. early October at the corner of Kent Avenue in Metairie.
At the end of July, the New Orleans region had the second most active patients of the nine regions, with nearly 7,800, data from the Pharmacy Board shows. The North Coast region had by far the most, with 9,460 patients; Baton Rouge was the only other region above 7,000. In the second quarter of 2022, there were nearly 35,000 patients and more than 199,000 prescriptions statewide. That’s about three times the number of active patients and five times the number of prescriptions filled around this time last year.
Once the satellite locations are up and running, pharmacy owners will have the option to open a third location if the second also reaches 3,500 patients.
Some pharmacy owners don’t think that will happen anytime soon.
Eric Vidrine, co-owner of Lafayette’s marijuana dispensary, Apothecary Shoppe, said he has entered into a purchase agreement for a former Chase bank branch in New Iberia, with plans for a satellite there. But he said it will be difficult to get 3,500 patients in the new facility, which is located in a less populated area. The satellite locations must be 15 miles from any other pharmacy that sells marijuana, under the law sponsored by Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee, R-Houma, and more populated places have stricter restrictions on where they are located.
“That will be quite a challenge,” Vidrine said. “If you’re going to measure it at the pharmacy level, that’s extremely difficult. I don’t know if places like New Iberia will ever reach 3,500 patients.”
Still, Vidrine said the business continues to grow. He said the pharmacy sets new records almost every month.
Omar Pecantte, owner of Green Leaf Dispensary in Houma, said he is looking to Luling of Morgan City for his next location. He also said it will be difficult to meet the 3,500 patient threshold in the second location that would allow for a third.
Darren Martin, co-owner of Willow Pharmacy on the North Shore in Madisonville, said he’s looking for a new location, but hasn’t landed on where it will be yet. He said he sells almost all the products he buys from the growers, giving each pharmacy a certain allocation.
The law permitting the new pharmacy locations also transferred grower regulation — a source of controversy — from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry to the Louisiana Department of Health.
The two growers, companies hired by LSU and Southern University farming centers respectively, had fought for years with the Department of Agriculture over what they saw as heavy-handed regulations and bureaucracy. Several pharmacy owners say they hope having the health ministry in charge will speed things up and eliminate supply disruptions. The Department of Agriculture has long denied that regulators are not slowing down the process.
The Ministry of Health published its rules for the program earlier this month. New testing labs are expected to come online soon after filing with the Department of Health, which proponents of the law say would help resolve delays. Previously, the Ministry of Agriculture did its own product tests.
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