SALT LAKE CITY — Utah could get a 15th medical cannabis pharmacy, as lawmakers seek to add options for patients who don’t live along the Interstate 15 corridor, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
A lengthy proposal presented Thursday by Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers would create an additional license for a pharmacy situated somewhere in rural Utah, with the goal of serving patients who now face long drives to buy cannabis.
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“If you look at the licenses that we have issued ... they’re all lined up on I-15, north to south,” Vickers, R-Cedar City, told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. “On the west side of the state, it’s a little closer proximity, so we have some coverage. On the eastern side of the state and some of the more rural areas there, we don’t.”
Vickers’ bill, which passed the committee with a unanimous vote, would also put pressure on the existing pharmacy operators to open the doors of their establishments. Only seven of the state’s 14 approved marijuana pharmacies have openedin the year since legal cannabis sales began in Utah, and his legislation would require these retailers to get up and running by June 1 or risk forfeiting their license.
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