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Utah’s cannabis pharmacies say testing logjam, software glitches are slowing sales

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Most medical cannabis programs experience a few growing pains when they’re ramping up, struggling with delays, supply chain hitches and the occasional lawsuit.

On top of those typical snags, Utah’s medicinal marijuana industry is in the unenviable position of putting down roots as a pandemic rages around it.

It’s been three months since patients who rely on the once-illicit substance could finally apply for a state-issued card demonstrating their medical need for it. March also marked the arrival of the state’s first medical cannabis pharmacy on Salt Lake City’s State Street, a straight shot from the Utah Capitol, where political battles had raged for years over marijuana.

The software that acts as the backbone of the state’s cannabis program has crashed or otherwise slowed down business too often, they say, and their requests for technical help don’t always receive a swift response. They also complain about a product testing bottleneck that has created gaps on their shelves.

“There’s a slew of product just sitting there from a number of different growers that haven’t gotten test results,” said Narith Panh, chief strategy officer for Dragonfly Wellness, the Salt Lake City pharmacy.

These delays mean pharmacies aren’t able to offer a full array of treatments, particularly raw cannabis flower, he continued.

“We’re constantly out of stock of product,” he said. “As soon as we get it in, we immediately sell out of it.”

Greta Brandt, who helps run Utah’s two other open medical cannabis pharmacies, said her company is running into problems with the software the state has chosen to keep track of marijuana products in the supply chain. Making matters worse, the company, MJ Freeway, isn’t acting quickly to correct these bugs as they crop up, she added.

“I don’t believe that they have enough resources set aside for Utah, and it’s really scary from an operations standpoint to think about when all these pharmacies come online and all the cultivators come online,” said Brandt, president of True North of Utah. “They are just going to be even slower to respond.”

Connor Boyack, a medical cannabis advocate and founder of the libertarian Libertas Institute, said the state’s program as a whole is reeling from the unexpected onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which has thrown off business plans and prevented more pharmacies from opening. But he said he’s sympathetic about the barriers Brandt and Panh have faced so far.

“We certainly share these frustrations and want to make sure that government hurdles are low and infrequent so that the market can respond to the needs of the patients, which is the entire point of this program,” he said. “This is, however, a very young market. We’re basically creating an entirely new industry in Utah.”

The ultimate plan is for private labs to handle the cannabis product testing, a system that is anticipated to streamline the…

Source: https://mmpconnect.com/utahs-cannabis-pharmacies-say-testing-logjam-software-glitches-are-slowing-sales/

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