Cannabis Dispensary Report Cards

Patients need access to medications that help them relieve pain, stop seizures, promote appetite, sleep, reduce anxiety, and address other symptoms. When a doctor in Utah recommends cannabis, a patient currently has seven dispensaries in Utah to buy product legally.

In an attempt to provide relevant and up-to-date information to patients, the Utah Bee is producing report cards for each dispensary. The December 2020 report card asks five yes or no questions and one composite question that determines each grade. 

Above you will find the overall report card. If you click on these links, it will take you to a report card that breaks down the dispensary’s individual grade: Beehive Farmacy, Curaleaf, Deseret Wellness, Dragonfly, Perfect Earth, Wholesome.

For the yes or no questions, a five was allotted for a yes answer and a one was allotted for a no answer. Wholesome has the one exception to this grading scale. They should have received a five for offering online ordering, but they demand a person give a great deal of personal information before even allowing a look at their menu. We felt this was burdensome to patients, so they received a three for their online ordering grade. 

The composite score is an average of how easy (or difficult) this information was to obtain through a phone call, a text, or online. The Utah Bee had a number of volunteers seek the information through various channels. If they all returned with the same information, the grade was high. If the information was inconsistent, the grade was low. What the answer revealed, did not change this number. 

The yes or no questions this month were: 

Are masks required in the dispensary?

Do you deliver?

Is a drive through or curbside pick-up option offered?

Is online ordering available?

Is there an ATM onsite?

All of these questions were developed with the patient in mind. Providing these services makes it easier for patients to access the medicines they need. For instance, delivery of orders is available through the current law. However, to date, no dispensary is offering delivery. This hurts patients. 

The Utah Bee also knows that these dispensaries are restricted by the medical cannabis law of the state. But the services questioned in this month's report card are simple services that are not restricted by the current law and have more to do with how each dispensary interacts with the public. 

Watch the Utah Bee for more dispensary report cards. We invite commentary on the Utah Bee’s FB page.