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Hawaii’s Lone Medical Dispensary Runs Out Of Cannabis In First Week

Written by Corre Addam

When it comes to supply and demand, market forces apply to medical cannabis, as they to do for all popular products

Having reported recently that Hawaii just opened its first medical cannabis dispensary, it only took a week for patients to empty the fully stocked shelves there, leaving a short-term cannabis shortage on the American island.

Hawaii’s first cannabis dispensary was twenty years in the coming, and people there had hoped that Maui Grown Therapies would have enough stock for more than just a week’s supply. However, demand was way higher than they had anticipated when they opened for business.

Now, to the dismay of many patients, the dispensary needs to close their doors as they wait on the Department of Health’s State Labs Division to clear a backlog of products.

According to the bosses at Maui Grown Therapies, more stock should have arrived on Saturday, in time for the weekend. And this is indicative of the problems faced by dispensaries across North America, who have to put up with a bunch of excessive red tape and delays on a regular basis.

In order to deal with the issue, the dispensary has decided to close until Wednesday, when they hope to receive more stock. Furthermore, they will only be dispensing cannabis to patients who make an appointment via their website, in advance.

Christopher Cole, director of product management at the dispensary, told reporters that it was their intention all along to provide a wide range of products, including cannabis topicals and concentrates. However, because of the State Labs Division’s failure to certify a lab to conduct testing of manufactured goods, that couldn’t happen yet.

Cole explained, “Even though we were approved by the Department of Health on May 24 to manufacture cannabis products, the restrictions placed on the state’s only licensed lab have prevented us from offering these products to our patients – and it is entirely unclear to us when this will change.”

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About the author

Corre Addam

Addam spends the lion's share of his day fixated on his computer screen. When he isn't in front of his computer, you'll most likely find him editing or researching his next fascinating article on his smartphone or tablet. When he manages to pull himself away from technology, you'll find him chilling hard somewhere, probably under a tree with an ice-cold Iced-tea, pondering life...