New Medical Marijuana Dispensary comes to Middletown, NY
“Step into a world where science, nature, and health converge,” reads the opening line on The Botanist’s website. These are not typical words that most people would use to describe marijuana products, but The Botanist, a medical marijuana company, is looking to change that narrative one patient at a time.
The Botanist currently has five dispensaries open across the Northeast, with rapid expansion on their minds. The most recent stop on The Botanist’s tour of newly opened shops came to Middletown, New York, when it opened on January 26. The dispensary is the third in New York.
Mark Price, lead pharmacist, brings over forty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry to the Middletown dispensary, and despite being open for less than a month he has already seen great success in his work. “After being in retail pharmacy for forty years, this is really really different, but it’s really really good. It’s very rewarding work.”
Price now has the time to care for his patients on a more individual and personal level, to make sure they get the absolute most out of their visits. “I used to fill 600–900 prescriptions a day in retail pharmacy. I didn’t have the time to talk to anybody, but now I can actually consult with my patients. I make sure what we give them fits into their lifestyle and that it works. I can see the results, I can see the change in the lives of my patients.”
A patient must first receive a recommendation for medical marijuana from a doctor, then receives an additional evaluation from Price. From there, patients are allowed to leave the lobby of the dispensary and enter the actual shop where various products such as vape pens, powders, and capsules are on display.
Patients suffering from chronic pain or cancerous diseases are those most subject to marijuana treatment. Price described one of his recent patients who has cancer. “He hasn’t slept in a year and a half because the pain usually wakes him up in the middle of the night. I gave him something from our shop and he called me the next day saying that was the first time he had slept through the entire night. One thousand percent this stuff works.”
The Botanist belongs to a parent company called Acreage Holdings. This is the largest US cannabis operator with large goals to continue their rapid expansion nationwide. Price concludes, “We’re expanding through the whole nation. Very soon there will be plenty of us.”
