Gladstone dispensary applicant prioritizing education for staff, patients, and community

Magna Carta Dispensary is taking its passion for alternative medicines and treatments to the next step with their dispensary application. They hope to open a dispensary in Gladstone.

The dispensary, spearheaded by Gabrielle Bennett, MBA, is one of over 1,000 dispensary applicant hopefuls. Facility licenses will be awarded by the state before December 31, 2019. 

Bennett said the dispensary seeks “to invest in the health and well-being of the community and patients – and create opportunities for education and enlightenment.”

“Our initial offerings will include cultivated flower, extracts, edibles, topicals, and tinctures,” Bennett told Greenway Magazine. “Having a wide variety of products will help us understand what works best for our patients. As the market matures, the products we offer will change based on patient demand.”

The stand-alone facility is looking forward to working with manufacturers and cultivators to find the best product offerings for patients. 

“We truly believe in the benefits of cannabis and our patients come first! We plan to create a patient-centric, welcoming facility,” Bennett said. “Our goal is to create educated informed patients who feel comfortable and confident. We strive to provide patients with a complete understanding of all the products available to empower educated decision making. Our passionate, dedicated team is knowledgeable and ready to help patient’s lives change for the better! In addition to providing top quality products to our patients, we want to schedule events and drives throughout the year to collect items or raise funds to be distributed to communities in need. For example, one of our plans for community outreach is to partner with local nonprofits to support the improvement of maternal and infant health outcomes in Kansas City’s urban core. Other plans include supporting organizations working to eliminate the Pre-k through 12th-grade achievement gap in public education. As members of the community, we are as passionate about changing the lives of patients as we are about changing inequality in communities. We can’t wait to participate in the positive impacts on our communities!”

Bennett’s team includes experts with a variety of experience, ranging from medical and industry to financial and security. 

“Our combined resources, experience, and education will provide us the capability to become one of the most successful businesses in the Missouri market,” Bennett said.

Their dispensary goal is to use education and training to “operate with compassion and integrity and maintain facility compliance.” Education will extend beyond the store’s doors to the community and patients. 

“Each patient will have access to all the information they need to make informed decisions, and the tools they need to track their consumption and results,” Bennett said. “Our primary focus is to support our educated and informed patients so they can make the best decisions regarding their health needs.”

Bennett is hoping that healthy competition will lead to patients winning by creating a collaborative and symbiotic marketplace – and hopes to work with “other dispensaries to create educational materials for patients, community members, and other family members to eliminate the stigma of medical marijuana.”

Her biggest concern for the industry is patient access and safety. 

“As an emerging market, it will be difficult for regulators to maintain control over all aspects of the industry. I hope that owners are responsible and, like us, will vow to put patients before profits.”

Bennett hopes that as the program matures, the state will implement social equity provisions. 

“These provisions should be carefully crafted to benefit individuals and communities that were most impacted by the ‘war on drugs,’” Bennett said. “It is estimated sales in 2022 for all markets that legalized medical and/or adult-use cannabis in 2016 or after sits at $12.7 billion for those with social equity provisions, compared with $4.1 billion for those without. That’s a big difference!”

Bennett forsees Missouri’s cannabis industry growing as it gains experience.

“For what it is worth, it is a brand new industry,” Bennett said. “No one knows what they are doing, all we can do is look at past examples and make a choice as to what works best in this market and in this state. This goes for both the regulators and the applicants. Every new industry and new market come with a predictable set of challenges, cannabis comes with a unique set of challenges. We have selected a very knowledgeable and experienced consulting company to work with and help us navigate some of the potential cannabis industry-specific circumstances. We’re excited!”