Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Medical marijuana dispensary opens
Bentonville business first to operate in region, attracts hundreds of customers
BENTONVILLE — Bradley Harris was No. 77 in line for medical marijuana Wednesday as Northwest Arkansas’ first dispensary opened for business.
The 32-year-old Bentonville resident and Army veteran, who said he has post-traumatic stress disorder, arrived at 7:45 a.m. at The ReLeaf Center, 9400 E. McNelly Road.
“I don’t like painkillers or Xanax or anything like that,” Harris said. “I was actually addicted to painkillers for about four years. It was rough. Then, I went to Colorado and tried this.”
Harris was one of the hundreds of customers waiting outside ReLeaf.
The business gave wristbands with numbers to customers in line, allowing them to leave and come back without losing their spots or sit in a shaded area while they waited.
“We have more product than we can possibly transfer to the community over many days, so there’s no possibility we’ll run short on any products,” Buddy Waynewith ReLeaf said Tuesday.
ReLeaf ordered marijuana from three cultivation facilities in Arkansas and offers it in traditional form as well as concentrated oils and edibles.
“The community has been more than patient waiting a terribly long period of time to see the medicine that they voted for,” Wayne said.
Arkansas voters approved medical marijuana in 2016. The first dispensary, Doctor’s Orders, opened May 10 in Hot Springs. ReLeaf is the seventh open dispensary in Arkansas, Scott Hardin, spokesman at the Department of Finance and Administration, said Wednesday. In addition to Doctor’s Orders, the others are Native Green Wellness Center in Hensley, Fiddler’s Green in Mountain View, Arkansas Natural Products in Clinton, Greenlight Dispensary in Helena and Green Springs Medical in Hot Springs.
The dispensaries sold about $4.1 million worth, or about 600 pounds, of medical marijuana as of last week, Hardin said.
A patient or caregiver ID card is necessary to purchase medical marijuana. More than 18,000 cards were issued in the state as of Friday, according to the Department of Health.
Medical marijuana helps Harris in situations such as being in a crowd, as he was Wednesday morning, he said. It also helps him sleep.
Angela Ayres, 44, of Rogers was also in line Wednesday morning and said she didn’t want to miss the opening of ReLeaf.
“It’s prohibition ending in Arkansas,” she said.
Ayres has multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system, and said medical marijuana keeps her legs from swelling and mitigates headaches.
“A lot of people with MS take narcotics, and I choose not to do it,” she said.
ReLeaf served 135 customers as of 2:20 p.m. Wednesday, said Draik Files, a security guard at the dispensary.
ReLeaf’s opening was delayed from last week after an Alcohol Beverage Control Board inspection.
The ReLeaf Center and another dispensary, Arkansas Medicinal Source Patient
Center, in Bentonville didn’t fail the board’s inspections, Hardin said.
However, the state agency couldn’t allow the dispensaries to open because the dispensaries’ software, which tracks marijuana sales, failed required tests.
“Both were extremely well-prepared,” Hardin said.
Dispensaries in Arkansas are required to have tracking software linking to the Department of Finance and Administration and the Department of Health, Hardin said. The software ensures people don’t purchase more than the legal limit of 2.5 ounces of medical marijuana every two weeks.
It also tracks data such as how much marijuana each dispensary sells and how many patients it serves.
“All that’s been resolved,” TJ Gallagher, dispensary agent at ReLeaf, said Wednesday.
Mike Bingham, 68, of Rogers said purchasing his medical marijuana took about 15 minutes once he got into the facility. He got in line around 7:30 a.m. and walked out with his purchase at 9:50 a.m.
Bingham has arthritis and has driven about 200 miles to a dispensary in Hot Springs for medical marijuana.
“I was on three different pain meds, and now I’m off all of them,” he said.
The Department of Finance and Administration is prepared to give final approval to Arkansas Medicinal Source, 404 Razorback Drive in Bentonville, Hardin said. However, the company has decided to make changes to its tracking software, which could delay its opening until next week.
A representative of Arkansas Medicinal Source said Tuesday he had no news on the opening.