Medical marijuana patients from different parts of the country are experiencing great benefits coming their way through continued cannabis reforms. In Delaware, medical pot patients will be in a position to purchase marijuana medicine in all compassion centers licensed by the state. The medical cannabis laws of Delaware are currently in progress. A recent change authorizing a real-time registry of patients through the Division of Public Health implies that patients will be permitted to buy pot medicine at any compassion center licensed by the state after Sussex and Kent marijuana dispensaries start to operate in 2017. This is the way of Americans according to Debra Nau who is an executive director for a medical cannabis advocacy organization known as the Delaware Patient Network and also a medical pot patient from New Castle County. He said that not everyone enjoys shopping from the same point. As new dispensaries emerge, patients may start preferring the compassion centers.
As of now in Delaware County, it does not matter the County from which a medical weed patient comes from. Initially, it was a problem because the Wilmington-based First State Compassion Center was the only available choice. However, this state will change soon. The availability of marijuana dispensaries in Kent and Sussex counties means that patients from the same counties will in the near future not need to go to Wilmington for their medical cannabis. The immediate registration of patients whose requirement started to take effect on November 29 implies that patients coming from Sussex County who happen to have visited Wilmington can also purchase their medical marijuana there if they consider doing so. According to Nau, competition is much needed in Delaware in order to help manage costs. This way, patients will have diversity.
The medical weed law in Delaware gives patients the permission to buy up to 3 ounces of weed in a period of 14 days. As crafted originally, the law placed the task of tracking purchases by patients directly on the dispensaries. This is very easy when there is only one company running a single compassion center. A well-established organization by the name Columbia Care, operating dispensaries in Arizona, California, New York, Washington, D.C. and Illinois among several others won a bid in September to run the first medical cannabis dispensary in Kent County. In October, there was also another bidder, First State that won the contract for running a medical marijuana dispensary in Sussex County. First State opened a marijuana dispensary based in Wilmington and growing operation in 2015.
Tracking purchases is a matter that was raised almost a year ago by the vice president of growing for First State Compassion Center, Mr. Joel Allcock. This issue came up during an obligatory pre-bid gathering for organizations that showed interesting in placing bids for the future Sussex and Kent dispensaries. To realize this effort, there was a proposal to restrict marijuana patients to a dispensary in their county of residence. However, this did not materialize. Prior to any matter with the choice of patient coming up, the law was altered through the passage of House Bill 400 in July 2016. This bill gave authority to the department of Health and Social Services institute to facilitate an instant statewide registration of patients to track all their weed purchases. The bill was signed in August by Gov. Jack Markell and started to function after 90 days. It was more than just the real-time registration as the bill also sought to deal with some other matters in the medical cannabis law of the state. These have been the basis upon which medical pot patients have continued to see reforms that aim at uplifting their welfare through improved access to marijuana and enhanced purchasing power.