California law allows individual cities and towns to regulate cannabis sales within their borders. Unfortunately, this has led to some municipalities banning both recreational and medical sales alike. But California lawmakers have finally intervened with new legislation that requires cities and towns to allow medical cannabis home delivery at a minimum.
The legislation restores access to medical cannabis patients without requiring municipalities to green light physical cannabis pharmacies or dispensaries. It seems like a good compromise between patient access and local sovereignty. The big question now is whether home delivery providers will serve those cities and towns with bans against physical cannabis retail outlets.
Not a New Model
Cannabis home delivery is by no means new. It is just one model for getting cannabis into the hands of customers as conveniently and efficiently as possible. The thing about home delivery is that it is not as robust as it is for other types of products. Dispensaries, pharmacies, and third-party delivery providers are sometimes reticent to get into cannabis home delivery thanks to the many inconveniences that come with it.
Here are just a few examples:
- Cash Only – Federal banking regulations continue to make cannabis a mostly cash-only business. Dealing in large amounts of cash is never a good idea when you are taking delivery – of any product.
- Delivery Restrictions – In the few states where home delivery is available, the practice is still heavily restricted. For example, cannabis packages have to be hand-delivered to the recipient. They cannot be left on a porch or in a locker.
- Coverage Areas – Due to limited markets in some locals, companies offering cannabis delivery have to cover wider areas. Doing so may not be profitable. If coverage areas are too wide, delivery costs more than it is worth.
It is safe to say that as home delivery catches on, a lot of the bugs are being worked out of it. The home delivery model is becoming more profitable as a result. And with greater profitability comes more competition. It will be interesting to see if California’s new legislation results in more competition among dispensaries, pharmacies, and delivery providers.
That Question of Rural Delivery
It is not clear how many towns in California that previously banned cannabis sales are rural towns. Why would that make a difference? Because it is harder to find rural delivery. Some parts of northern California are so rural as to make it difficult to justify delivering anything at all. Many medical cannabis patients in Utah are in a similar position.
Pure Utah is a licensed medical cannabis pharmacy located in Payson. There are slightly more than a dozen pharmacies in the entire state, but Pure Utah owners say that all but one are located in metropolitan areas. This is a problem for most rural Utah.
Home delivery is legal in the Beehive State. It was made legal a couple of years ago. Home delivery officially got underway in earnest in 2021 and it is making decent strides. Still, patients in many parts of rural Utah are not yet served by home delivery. They must still travel to the metropolitan regions to procure their medicines.
Getting back to California, patients previously excluded from the medical cannabis market are now included once again. By requiring local jurisdictions to allow home delivery, at the bare minimum, they are allowing patients to buy online and have medicines delivered to their homes. When a town chooses to ban physical pharmacies and dispensaries, businesses in neighboring towns can make up for the lack of delivery. Will they? That remains to be seen.
