America has had a complicated history with marijuana. For a long time, it was legal to buy, sell, and smoke and many Americans had a love affair with this calming drug. Then, after Prohibition showed us the folly of making something that so many people like illegal, we decided to ban marijuana. Now, finally, decades later, the average pot user can smoke in relative peace, without fear of repercussions from the police or any authority figure. Nowadays, depending on what state you’re in, you can pick up your pot just like you do your groceries. Typically, this is done at marijuana dispensaries. Think of your average bar, but instead of slinging drinks, they’re slinging cannabis. But how do they work? Isn’t pot still illegal at the federal level? Below, we’ll go inside the marijuana dispensary business to see how it all comes together.
Collective Community
For a long time, marijuana dispensaries were solely available to those who had a prescription. Medical marijuana has been legal for quite some time, as people realized that the effects of this drug can be greatly beneficial to those in pain, or those suffering from any of a broad range of mental issues. Thus, the marijuana dispensary was born out of necessity.
Most hospitals didn’t want to sell pot over the counter, so it quickly became necessary for people to come together to grow and sell plants to those who needed it. For many people with a prescription, they are allowed to grow a certain amount of plants to keep their supply going. Thus, creating a community garden is only a matter of several users with these prescriptions to pool their resources to grow enough plants to sell to the consumer. Marijuana, more than any other drug, seems to create a bond of brotherhood among its users. This has been crucial to the development of marijuana dispensaries since the beginning.
State Law
In Colorado and Washington, the recreational use of marijuana has become legal, although with a few stipulations. This means that the marijuana dispensary business exploded, with shops opening up all over the respective states. Fortunately, both locations already had a booming medical marijuana community, so transitioning to let casual users buy from these places was relatively easy.
Smoking your joint, however, is much more difficult, as in places like Colorado, clean-air laws forbid you from smoking inside, or even outside. This can have a very limiting effect for buyers. Even though you can waltz into a marijuana dispensary and buy your stuff, you’d be hard pressed to find a spot in which to smoke.
As more and more people get on the cannabis train, the number of marijuana dispensaries will only increase. Someday, it might become legalized at the federal level, but, until then, dispensaries will be where the action is.
