Medical marijuana sales begin in St. Louis County; patients line up at two licensed dispensaries

N’Bliss, a storefront at 15396 Manchester Road, sits between a shuttered Outback Steakhouse and a former Pier 1 Imports store. Demand for marijuana brought new life to the area, as well as stories of struggle.

No. 3 in line, Kim Haller, said she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996 and has long been frustrated by costly medications and injections. In recent months, with support from her husband and three grown children, she’s been buying marijuana from a licensed caregiver to cut back on pills.

“It helps with my spasticity, which means my muscles don’t move like I like them to, and sleep,” Haller, 54, of St. Peters, said of the marijuana treatment.

On Saturday, she wanted to compare the caregiver’s product with what N’Bliss offered. It was more than three times as expensive. A lighter, rolling papers and an eighth of an ounce each of two medical marijuana strains called LSD and Paris XXX OG cost $125 and $16 more in tax.

That’s not covered by insurance. But she said one of the varieties was described as inducing “no couch lock,” meaning it is not supposed to make her drowsy like some of her prescription meds do.

“It’s natural,” said Haller, a former business analyst at Express Scripts. “I am not interested in Big Pharma.”

State regulators celebrated the milestone.

“Missouri patients have always been our north star as we work to implement the state’s medical marijuana program,” Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said in a news release. “We greatly appreciate how hard everyone has worked so that patients can begin accessing a safe and well-regulated program.”

The state expects most of the 192 licensed dispensaries to open by the end of the year. Health officials say Missouri is among the fastest states in the nation to get a medical marijuana program started.

Stigma still attached

Though clients need to have approval from a doctor and the state to buy medical marijuana, which must be paid for in cash or by debit card, some didn’t want to give a reporter their names. The federal government considers marijuana a controlled substance. Until more is known about its use as a medicine, there can still be a stigma attached.

“I use it for pain management and it works great,” said Zachary, 44, a college teacher in St. Louis and Iraq war veteran. “I don’t have to worry about (overdosing). I don’t have to worry about taking fentanyl.”

He disagreed that the program was quickly implemented.

“It took way too long, and obviously there were a lot of shenanigans that delayed people from getting medicine,” he said. “In a capitalistic society, why would you limit the number of businesses — growers, delivery, testing facilities? If you are a small-government type of person, why would you want to make that harder?”

Missouri voters approved the sale of medical marijuana in November 2018. Many businesses that applied for licenses were declined.

Some of the medical marijuana being sold here was cultivated by Archimedes Medical Holdings, according to a product label, which is based in Perryville, Missouri. It’s one of just a few licensed cultivators in the state that has produced marijuana, had it tested and brought to market, said Clay Stallings, director of advertising at The Evolution Magazine, a trade publication that’s been following Missouri’s medical marijuana industry. There are 60 cultivation licenses statewide. Once production, testing and logistics ramp up, he expects prices to drop.

“Millions have been invested with very little return so far,” Stallings said. “I think it’s going to be two to three years before people break even.”

Stallings said he expects more dispensaries to open next week in Springfield and the Kansas City area.

N’Bliss is part of Fenton-based Nirvana Investments, which got its start selling CBD and other products.

“We worked really hard to build out our facilities,” Rodney Moentmann, chief of operations, said of being the first dispensary out of the gate. “We set goals years ago.”

N’Bliss has a second location in Manchester that also started selling medical marijuana on Saturday. The line was much longer there, with some customers waiting three hours or more.

At noon, an 81-year-old retired school bus driver named Mary leaned on a walker, with 50 people in front of her. After several unsuccessful back surgeries, her family encouraged her to consider medical marijuana for the first time.

“I am on Social Security, so I don’t have a lot (of money),” said Mary, of St. Charles County. “I’d give up some food to have less pain.”