Medical cannabis home delivery isn’t yet the norm around the country, but it is making significant headway. Numerous states have given the green light to home delivery as long as certain conditions are met. Meanwhile, delivery companies are stepping up to provide the medical cannabis equivalent of on-demand food delivery.
In Utah, state lawmakers approved home delivery in 2021. Though it has taken a while to get things going due to the state’s largely rural nature, medical cannabis patients throughout Utah can now get their medicines delivered right to their homes.
Beehive Farmacy is a Utah medical cannabis pharmacy with locations in Salt Lake City and Brigham City. They say that medical cannabis home delivery has its pros and cons, especially from the patient’s perspective.
Medical Cannabis Home Delivery: The Pros
Let us start with the upsides of having access to medical cannabis home delivery. At the top of the list is convenience. People who live in rural Utah find driving an hour or more to an urban area rather inconvenient. With home delivery, they can let someone else do the driving.
Home delivery is also more convenient when you consider that patients can shop online. It is no different than buying anything else online. Patients can shop when it’s convenient for them. Whether it is first thing in the morning, the middle of the afternoon, or late at night, they can place their orders online and have them delivered right to the front door.
Finally, there are some medical cannabis patients who find it very difficult to visit a physical pharmacy or dispensary. Whether chronic pain makes it too difficult, or their condition doesn’t allow them to drive, just getting to a pharmacy is challenging. Home delivery solves that problem.
Medical Cannabis Home Delivery: The Cons
Home delivery is generally a good thing for medical cannabis patients. But there are some downsides to the deal. For starters, it is hard to get same-day delivery if you live outside of a major urban area. That certainly applies in Utah, where some patients need to wait a couple of days.
Another downside is that state laws generally require that patients themselves receive deliveries at their homes. Delivery companies are not allowed to make deliveries to workplaces, hotels, etc. Only patient homes, and only those homes with addresses registered with the state.
In addition, delivery drivers in most states are barred from leaving deliveries with family members or friends. This means the patient needs to be physically present to accept delivery. This can be inconvenient for patients with busy schedules.
One final downside is financial. Medical cannabis is still largely a cash-and-carry business, meaning patients need to pay for their purchases with cash. In addition, home delivery may ultimately be more expensive due to added delivery fees.
Home Delivery Is a Much-Needed Service
Adding up the pros and cons of medical cannabis home delivery makes things pretty much a wash. But for many patients, home delivery is a much-needed service that makes their lives easier. Utah lawmakers believed implementing home delivery was a way to increase access throughout the state.
Will medical cannabis home delivery ever be the norm? The chances are pretty good. Home delivery is a service now being offered with everything from groceries to restaurant food and the thousands of products you can buy from Amazon. It seems inevitable that home delivery will be standard fare for medical cannabis before long.
In Utah, home delivery is gaining momentum. It will be interesting to see how popular the service is in the state a decade from now.
