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A new cannabis dispensary opened near the casinos in Lake Charles on Wednesday. According to operator Good Day Farm, the medical cannabis shop is the largest in the South at nearly 10,000 square feet.
See more photos: This medical cannabis shop is now open in Louisiana with a drive-thru, taste tests
The new retail location, which replaces Good Day Farm’s old dispensary in an office complex on the town’s southside, features a drive-through and product displays where customers can taste-test unmedicated versions of the company’s THC and CBD gummies, smell the different types of terpenes included in inhalable products and view the different types of flower, as raw cannabis is commonly referred to.
With its open layout, bright colors and sleek lighting features, the dispensary looks more like a sneaker store than a pharmacy.
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“Our mission at Good Day Farm is breaking the stigma around cannabis and wanting it to be accessible,” Chief Retail Officer Laurie Gregory said.
Medical cannabis use across the state has been picking up, including in southwest Louisiana. According to data collected by the Board of Pharmacy, the number of patients across the state went up 60% over the past year. In Calcasieu Parish, the patient count almost doubled during that same timeframe.
Louisiana also saw the third-largest increase in cannabis tax revenue nationwide in 2023, according to a national study conducted by LendingTree.com. The last collected $993,000 in marijuana sales tax revenue, a 61.2% increase from the previous.
That increase in patients also allowed Good Day Farm to open two satellite locations in Sulphur and Jennings this year, an expansion that is tied to patient count thresholds by state law.
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“That’s just the culmination of the steady, stair-step growth of the patient count,” Good Day Farm Louisiana President John Davis said.
Located near the Golden Nugget and L’Auberge casinos, Good Day Farm expects to attract both local and visiting customers.
With gambling illegal in Texas, Lake Charles is a popular destination for Texans looking to try their luck at the casinos. Cannabis could become another such attraction. In Texas, only a very limited list of conditions qualifies patients for a medical marijuana recommendation and retail locations are few and far between in the expansive state.
Louisiana law does not specify a residency requirement for participating in the state’s medical marijuana program and patients with medical cards from other states are also allowed to participate.
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“You have a huge influx of visitors from Texas,” Davis said, noting that both high patient participation rates in the region and the potential for visiting customers from across the state line played a role in deciding on the new location.
While it’s much easier to qualify for a recommendation and obtain medical marijuana in Louisiana than in Texas, the state’s cannabis market is still highly restricted compared to neighboring states.
Only two companies are allowed to cultivate, process and distribute cannabis products, Good Day Farm being one of them.
Still, the company strives to maintain a diversity in its products and in-house brands, Gregory said. “We have constant newness in our strains, a lot of the cultivars are coming from the West Coast,” she said. “We really pride ourselves on being on the pulse.”
The state has slowly expanded market opportunities since it first legalized medical marijuana in 2015, including changes to the law in 2022 that allowed for satellite locations such as Good Day Farm’s in Sulphur and Jennings.
Since then, the number of dispensaries in the state has doubled, with the potential for 10 more to open in regions that have not yet hit their limit of three retail locations.
“}]] The number of cannabis patients across Louisiana grew 60% over the past year and the state saw the third-largest increase in cannabis tax revenue nationwide in 2023. Read More
