Colorado Just Issued The First Marijuana Delivery License In The State

As more Americans across the country are sheltering at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, a major Colorado cannabis retailer announced that it has received the state’s first permit to deliver medical marijuana directly to patients’ doors.

Boulder-based medical cannabis dispensary The Dandelion, which is owned and operated by the retail chain Native Roots, obtained Colorado’s first state-issued delivery license last week, the company announced on Thursday in a press release.

Delivery services won’t be available immediately, however. Shannon Fender, director of public affairs for Native Roots, said The Dandelion is hoping to begin its first deliveries by the end of the month.

“We will be providing more information about the date we’re going live,” Fender told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview, “but we’re planning for the end of March.”

Patients will also have to register as members of The Dandelion in order to qualify for delivery. Signing up currently requires patients to visit the dispensary in person, but Fender said the company is “looking for a way that patients could do this remotely” given concerns about spreading the coronavirus through human-to-human contact.

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— Native Roots (@NativeRoots303) March 13, 2020

Once deliveries do begin, The Dandelion will be able to drop off deliveries only within Boulder or the nearby town of Superior, another jurisdiction that also allows medical marijuana deliveries. Fender said Native Roots has been talking to other local governments “for months” about opting in to local delivery, but so far it’s been slow going.

“The Chamber is excited that Boulder is leading the way on regulation for cannabis delivery. Native Roots has been an upstanding member not only of the cannabis industry, but of the Boulder business community at large,” Boulder Chamber Director of Public Affairs Andrea Menegheal said in a press release. “We look forward to what this means for how our businesses strive to serve the patient community and as other jurisdictions begin policy conversations on cannabis delivery services.”

Under a law passed last year, deliveries of medical cannabis have been allowed under Colorado law since January 2. But, because local jurisdictions must first opt in to allowing delivery, the process of issuing state-level licenses has lagged.

Under the new law, deliveries of recreational marijuana won’t be allowed until January 2021 at the earliest.

Gov. Jared Polis (D) last year described marijuana delivery as a tactic to reduce impaired driving, but it’s become especially relevant in the new era of social distancing. As more and more dispensaries enact policies meant to limit the spread of coronavirus, delivery offers a way to protect vulnerable patients while still ensuring access to medicine.

“The timing is total coincidence, but it’s timely,” Fender at Native Roots said of the company’s delivery plans. “Medical delivery is really another option for patients to utilize social distancing.”

Across the country, state and local governments are grappling with whether to allow cannabis retailers to remain open. Most so far have allowed sales to continue, albeit with extra steps in place to avoid transmitting the virus. Fender said she wasn’t aware of any closures so far affecting Native Roots’s 21 locations in Colorado.

Patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access this week called on medical marijuana states to keep dispensaries open, urging officials to declare them “essential” services and adopt practices, such as curbside pickup or delivery, to limit transmission of the virus.

Beyond the issue of patient access, the coronavirus is also having a significant impact on drug policy reform efforts across the country. Campaigns to revise California’s adult-use cannabis law and legalize psilocybin mushrooms, as well as a Washington, D.C. campaign to decriminalize psychedelics, have all asked state lawmakers to allow them to collect signatures digitally to prevent viral transmission as they work to qualify for the November ballot.

In New York, hopes to include marijuana legalization in the final budget by an April deadline have largely been dashed due to the need to prioritize a coronavirus response.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images

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