Texas Original is looking to expand its Fort Worth area operations by opening a medical marijuana pharmacy of sort in Panther City.
Limited access to medical marijuana is legal in Texas through the Texas Compassionate Use Program. The program allows for the prescription of low-tech cannabis for certain medical conditions, such as chronic pain, Crohn’s disease, cancer and epilepsy.
Texas Original, one of just a few licensed medical marijuana dispensers in the state, wants to open a location at 2812 Horne St., off Camp Bowie Boulevard just south of Interstate 30. The company would keep inventory there and allow patients to pick up their prescribed medical marijuana.
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The business has a pickup location at 760 Airport Freeway in Hurst, and pickup available at Compound Athletics at 2529 Weisenberger St. in Fort Worth.
The main difference between its operations and the planned Fort Worth dispensary is the on-site medical marijuana storage. Until recently, Texas law hasn’t allowed medical marijuana to be stored overnight at pickup locations.
Texas Original’s medical marijuana is stored at its manufacturing facility in Bastrop, its CEO Nico Richardson said.
As it works now, the business is “basically taking the orders from the day before, we’re driving them out there first thing in the morning, and then whatever’s not picked up at the end of the day, we’re driving back,” Richardson said.
“You can imagine, it’s incredibly inefficient from a logistics standpoint,” he said.
House Bill 46, which expanded the program and went into effect on Sept. 1, allows for inventory storage when approved by the state.
Texas Original hopes the Fort Worth site on Horne Road will be one of the locations with overnight storage, Richardson said.
“The takeaway from all of this is, it just increases accessibility for our current and future patients, and it makes it much quicker for them to get the medicine they want day of, rather than having to think about it and order a day in advance or two days in advance,” he said.
A similar Texas Original pick-up site with storage was recently approved in Austin, Richardson said.
Because of the way the law is written, the Hurst location would continue as more of a pickup spot, without storage, for the time being, Richardson said. Texas Original plans to evaluate whether pickup at Compound Athletics is still necessary once the new Fort Worth site is open.
Texas Original serves more than 1,700 patients in the Fort Worth region.
“It was one of the first places we looked at once the rules came out for satellite locations, and said we absolutely need to have our own space in Fort Worth,” Richardson said. “We have too many patients there right now, so we’re hoping to expand.”
Goodblend Texas, one of the state’s other licensed medical marijuana dispensers, announced Monday that its San Antonio storefront had been approved for overnight storage.
“This is a game changer for Texans who rely on safe, legal, and regulated medical cannabis,” said Nicholas Fallon, Texas Market President for Goodblend Texas. “With overnight storage in San Antonio, we’re no longer racing the clock to get back to Austin. We can spend that time reaching more patients, in more communities, with faster and more reliable access to the medicine they depend on.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety is in the process of expanding the number of licensed dispensing organizations from three to 15, in accordance with House Bill 46. On Monday, it announced a list of nine potential new license holders.