Utah is getting a new rural medical cannabis pharmacy. The question is where.

The City of Moab could see its first medical cannabis pharmacy within the next year, but it’s all up to the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food to place the dispensary where they see fit.

Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake, sponsored House Bill 54 during the 2025 legislative session, which allows the department to open one new medical cannabis pharmacy in the state with one catch — it has to be in a rural county that’s considered medically underserved. Additionally, the bill requires the pharmacy to be locally owned and operated.

Moab meets the criteria.

City Manager Michael Black presented a letter of support at the City Council meeting July 8 about the possibility of opening the medical cannabis pharmacy at the old WabiSabi location on 160 East 100 South, citing “I think it’s a pretty good use, so I recommend that we approve the letter.”

The city council swiftly voted unanimously to support the letter, all agreeing that there’s a need for the pharmacy in Moab.

Dashiel Kulander, Moab local and CEO of Boojum Group, a cannabis processor and manufacturer, advocated for the measure.

Kulander has been working on getting Moab a pharmacy since 2020. In 2021, Moab was in the running but the dispensary went to Price instead.

The potential pharmacy is in its preliminary stages and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food is scheduled to make a decision by Oct. 9.

According to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 102,600 Utahns have active medical cannabis cards as of June with 181 being from Grand County.

Benefits to Moab

Kulander believes the economic impact to a medical cannabis pharmacy opening in Moab could be “substantial” but does not want to speculate on “exact figures on this point.”

He also believes that this will solve Moab’s access problem to medical cannabis pharmacies in the state.

The closest pharmacy to Moab is in Price, which is approximately two hours away.

Cris Wibby, nurse practitioner and qualified medical provider, agrees with Kulander that there’s an access problem in Moab.

“Currently, the patients have to get delivery from Price or get to Price, or they have to go up north or to St George,” Wibby said in an interview.

However, getting medical cannabis delivered to Moab isn’t as easy as it seems.

Wibby told The Times-Independent that Moab can only receive deliveries two times a month. If a patient can’t wait for a delivery, then the caregiver must be registered in the database to drive two hours to get the prescription.

Kulander believes that “by placing a pharmacy in Moab we are providing direct access to a state-regulated medicine without the need for patients to drive over 100 miles to the closest pharmacy or turn to more dangerous and addictive alternatives such as opioids to treat pain.”

The Department of Health and Human Services released 10 years of data on drug overdoses earlier this year. Kulander points to the 2023 spike in drug overdoses in southeastern Utah.

In 2023, there were 606 drug overdoses in the state, which was a 14.3% increase from the prior year.

Both Kulander and Wibby agree that if a pharmacy does open in Moab, then it could reduce the number of overdoses the state sees each year.

“We firmly believe that cannabis can play a significant role in harm reduction in the area as patients are able to substitute more dangerous opioids for medical cannabis options to treat their pain,” Kulander said. “Or … as a substitute for benzodiazepines for people struggling with PTSD,” Kulander said.

Wibby agrees with Kulander.

“I meet a lot of people who don’t want to take opiates and they’re not able to tolerate nerve medicines,” Wibby said. “I’ve worked in psych for so long, for PTSD, patients can often be on up to five or six medications.”

Nearly 87,900 Utahns have a medical cannabis card to treat their chronic pain with PTSD coming in second with about 6,400 Utahns treating their illness with medical cannabis.

Megan Broekemeir, The drug overdose prevention research coordinator with the Office of the Medical Examiner, said most drug overdoses are from prescription drugs, but opiates are being mixed with heroin, methamphetamine, and now fentanyl.

Kulander also believes that placing a pharmacy in Moab will offer a “safer [and] healthier alternative to the black market options that many Moab residents are currently consuming.”

“All of the products in Utah’s medical program are processed and manufactured in heavily regulated facilities, using clean and effective lab processes, and are third party tested to ensure purity and avoid harmful adulterants,” Kulander said.

How did we get here?

Medical cannabis was legalized in Utah during the 2018 midterm elections with only 52.7% of Utahns voting yes on Proposition 2. However, despite the narrow victory, lawmakers called a special legislative session to tighten restrictions on patient access and to give the state greater oversight on the matter, calling it the Utah Medical Cannabis Act.

Marijuana advocates said the law was “undoubtedly inferior” to what Utahns originally voted for, but that it’s better than nothing.

The program was then launched in 2019. Since the legalization of medical marijuana, the Legislature has seen a slew of bills attempting to expand access to patients.

Primarily, past Republican Gov. Gary Herbert signed Senate Bill 161 which made a number of changes to the state’s cannabis program. One protection Herbert added to patients is that medical cannabis patients cannot be discriminated against in family court.

The following year, Herbert signed SB121, which allowed physicians to recommend more patients for medical marijuana. The same year, Herbert also signed HB425 which lengthens the validity of medical cards and allows patients more time to renew their access.

In 2023, Utah officially decriminalized medical marijuana.

Despite the progression towards making medical cannabis more accessible, lawmakers are still fighting an uphill battle and Kulander agrees it’s “not a cakewalk.”

Dailey-Provost sponsored a similar bill to HB54. Originally HB203 would have opened 25 new medical cannabis pharmacies. However, after pushback from the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints and the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, the bill was amended to only issue two new pharmacy licenses in the state.

HB203 eventually met its demise in the Senate committee where it failed to receive a vote.

“HB54 became a watered down version of HB203, which only promulgated 2 new pharmacy licenses, one before January 2026 and another before January 2027,” Kulander said.

When asked why there is such a stigma around cannabis in the state, Wibby said “to politely say, maybe people have cultural, political and religious problems [and] they don’t keep up their knowledge, and so they still stigmatize cannabis.”

Because of that, Wibby said she’s had patients who have been “pushed aside” by prior providers.

“They’re left suffering,” Wibby said. “I’ve had people come in my office crying in tears because of their nerve medicine and they don’t really want to take opiates, that’s not even working, and so I think it’s a real problem.”

Originally from Connecticut and a Yale graduate, Wibby moved to Utah in hopes to revolutionize healthcare, but admits she’s received a lot of pushback.

“For me, it’s like a healing, compassionate thing, and then I feel like there’s nobody in support of me doing this,” Wibby said. “But I don’t care. These are my people and I protect them. This is really important for the community.”

This story was first published by The Times-Independent.