How To Open a Pot Dispensary

When you’re thinking about how to open a pot dispensary, keep in mind that the entire operation depends on your motives- why you want to open it. If you’re sincere about helping people, your work will show it otherwise you would just be putting yourself and others around you at risk.

Next, before getting started on how to open a pot dispensary (also known as medical cannabis dispensing collective or compassion clubs) you need to be clear about what exactly they are. They are legal organizations under certain state laws which allow the cultivation of marijuana for strictly medicinal purposes.

Under the health and safety codes, only certain organizations are allowed to do so either collectively or cooperatively only for patients who are legally-qualified along with their primary caregivers.

The laws in this area are not very clear about the details of the organization, they do put one thing across- that medical cannabis (marijuana or pot) can not be grown for profit. Thus, the organization has to be a not-for-profit one [not to be confused with non-profit organizations which do charitable and tax-exempt work, for example churches and certain hospitals and groups]. A not-for-profit business is any organization which re-invests most of the revenues in the service of its members or similar kinds of non-commercial activity. They are not, however, tax exempt.

Also, selling marijuana (or medical cannabis) is still federally illegal and has been strongly opposed by the law enforcement agencies. However, you would need to inform them when you open your business. A pointer to keep in mind when mulling over how to open a pot dispensary is that you are committing an act of civil disobedience every time you serve your patients for which you may even have to go to jail.

An important pointer in the how to open a pot dispensary is to use proper terminology. Thus, instead of calling it ‘pot’, you could avoid future lawsuits by calling it ‘medical cannabis’. They mean the same thing, its just the technical wordings often don’t carry the “tag” with them.

The medication should always be obtained from its registered members, which may seem as a challenge for new dispensing collectives. Also, it is important to build a membership base before having a wide selection to offer them.

It is always recommended to consistently check with a legal advisory to explain the state requirements on how to start a non profit collective and keep the necessary marijuana business papers (the licenses, the business permits etc) and your attorney close. We also offer a completely email course below that explains everything for you.