The only medical marijuana pharmacy in Lafayette will break ground on a new location early next year.
The Apothecary Shoppe will open at 2114 Ambassador Caffery Parkway next to the Marketplace Shopping Center after developer Phil Devey bought the 11 acres and sold about an acre to Apothecary Holdings LLC, which is registered to Apothecary Shoppe owner Eric Vidrine.
Vidrine, who landed the only license to operate a medical marijuana pharmacy in the Lafayette region five years ago, opened his first pharmacy at 620 Guilbeau Road, Suite A, in 2019 and opened a pharmacy in New Iberia at 1700 Center St. in September.
The new location will replace the current Lafayette location and could start construction in the first quarter. The location will front Ambassador Caffery Parkway and have 90 parking spots, a move that Vidrine needed a variance from the Lafayette Conolidated Government’s Board of Zoning Adjustments since it exceeded the maximum spaces allowed.
It’s also a sign of growth in the medical marijuana industry in the region and across the state. The pharmacy, which Vidrine operates along with his son, Blair, said in August they were at over 10,000 patients in the region. Much of that increase was the result of the lawmakers allowing pharmacies to sell the smokable flower form of the drug last year, and 70% of the business now involves the flower sales.
The company added 700 new patients in the second quarter.
“We’re growing so fast,” said Vidrine, who opened the first compounding pharmacy in Lafayette 25 years ago. “When we first opened, we had a pharmacist and two technicians, and we’d let one of the technicians come and work at our other pharmacy just because there was nothing to do. We’ve grown to a staff of over 20 in Lafayette. (There’s) Just a lot of activity, and that building wasn’t set up for the type of volume it’s seeing.”
The Apothecary Shoppe was awarded the sole license to distribute and dispense medical marijuana in a region that includes Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin and Vermilion parishes. Vidrine said it may eventually open a pharmacy in St. Landry Parish.
Much of that increase was the result of the lawmakers allowing pharmacies to sell the smokable flower form of the drug last year, and 70% of the business now involves the flower sales.
Medical marijuana is the latest area of growth for Vidrine, who still has his Professional Arts Pharmacy in Lafayette that employs over 100 and is license in all 50 states. He said he got interested in the discussion of medical marijuana when state Sen. Fred Mills, also a pharmacist, began working on it and began seeing how patients often became addicted to opioids, something Vidrine says he sees every day.
Lawmakers wanted the market to be heavily regulated, and Blair Vidrine got involved at the time while working with a public policy firm in Lafayette.
The Vidrine’s first customer was former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who was suffering from a rare form of cancer before she died in 2019. The drug offered her immediate relief from the bouts of excruciating pain she suffered at the time.
“It extended the quality of not only the time she had but just the quality of life and how she was able to communicate,” Vidrine said. “Her family has been very open and have been advocates for it. They talked about it at her funeral.”
The pharmacy will be located alongside another business that is in negotiations to buy about an acre next to The Cottonport Bank while the remaining eight acres is still undeveloped. Devey paid just under $1 million for the entire lot.
“I’m open for other options,” Devey said. “I’m not in a hurry to do anything with it.”
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