Salt Lake City – The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) has awarded the state’s 15th medical cannabis pharmacy license to Dragonfly Wellness. The company was one of eight applicants and chosen through a competitive bidding process.
Dragonfly Wellness will open a facility in Price, Utah making it the first medical cannabis pharmacy located in Carbon County and southeast Utah. Utah law required the 15th pharmacy license be given to a business located in either Daggett, Duchesne, Uintah, Carbon, Sevier, Emery, Grand, or San Juan County.
Dragonfly Wellness owns an existing medical cannabis pharmacy located in Salt Lake City. It is a vertically integrated cannabis business with both a cannabis processor and cannabis cultivator license from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
There are 14 medical cannabis pharmacy locations already operating throughout Utah. Locations open to qualifying patients include: Beehive Farmacy (Salt Lake City and Brigham City), BLOC Pharmacy (South Jordan and St. George), Bloom Medicinal (Cedar City), Cannabist (Springville), Curaleaf (Lehi), Deseret Wellness (park City and Provo), Dragonfly Wellness (Salt Lake City, Pure (Payson), Perfect Earth Modern Apothecary (Logan and Ogden), and WholesomeCo Cannabis (Bountiful).
License applications were evaluated and scored by an evaluation committee based on several criteria, including: experience in medical cannabis or other highly regulated industries, disciplinary action or investigation in Utah or other jurisdictions, an operating plan to ensure the safety and security of cardholders and the community, the extent to which an applicant can reduce the cost of medical cannabis, connections to the local community, and a strategic plan with a high likelihood of success.
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Rich Oborn operates the Center for Medical Cannabis at the Utah Department of Health. His department oversees all pharmacy operations in the state.
“The evaluation committee spent many hours evaluating applications from companies seeking this medical cannabis pharmacy license. The process was highly competitive and some qualified applicants were left disappointed, but that is the nature of a highly competitive process,” said Richard Oborn, Utah Department of Health, Center for Medical Cannabis. “The Utah Department of Health is committed to ensuring patients have safe and reliable access to medical cannabis and we are confident that Dragonfly Wellness is well prepared to meet the needs of qualifying patients living in Southeastern Utah.”
Utah’s medical cannabis program launched in March 2020. Currently, approximately 40,000 Utah residents are registered medical cannabis cardholders and more than 800 medical providers have registered with the Utah Department of Health to recommend medical cannabis to qualifying patients.
Information about how to apply for a medical cannabis card is available online at medicalcannabis.utah.go.
