Medical marijuana dispensaries are opening in Lebanon and Carthage

Two Ozarks communities, both with roughly 15,000 people living in them, are getting medical marijuana dispensaries.

Lebanon's first licensed dispensary opened Friday morning, and one in Carthage is expected to open Saturday.

Blue Sage Cannabis Company, located at 1210 Deadra Drive on the east side of Lebanon, attracted "several hundred" people for its grand opening, the owner of both stores told the News-Leader on Monday.

LeAnne Dickerson is an independent pharmacist based in Garden City and licensed in Missouri since 1997, according to state records.

"It went awesome," Dickerson said of the grand opening in Lebanon. Patients who came to the dispensary last weekend provided "really good feedback" for the patient-counseling staff.

"You know, we heard some phenomenal stories from people — they were so thankful because they've been off their opioid medications because of medical cannabis," Dickerson said. As a pharmacist, she said those are stories "I love to hear."

Blue Sage in Lebanon is currently selling cannabis flower (marijuana buds) from two Missouri-licensed cultivators, C4 and Solhaus. On Monday the dispensary's online store listed strains of the plant including Blue Dream, Lemon Royale and Bubba Fett. Some edibles will go on sale in Lebanon this weekend, Dickerson said Monday afternoon.

The Carthage store, located at 429 Peachtree Lane in a converted barn built in the Ozarks native rock style, is expected to sell both flower and edible products when it opens on Saturday, Dickerson said. 

Both stores were among 192 dispensary licenses granted by Missouri medical marijuana authorities in late 2019.

In a news release, Blue Sage Cannabis said Dickerson and her team have "80-plus years combined experience" in the medical field and were trained by Kansas City-based Cannabis Care Team, a company working with Missouri and Oklahoma dispensaries on best practices.

“We are a family operated business and we are committed to providing a patient-focused experience, as we’ve done in independent pharmacies in the past,” Dickerson said in the news release. “Our employees are local and we’re a part of this community in every sense.”

The store posts updates about hours of operation and other details to a Facebook page (search "Blue Sage Cannabis Company") and at bluesagecanna.com.

Missouri medical marijuana authorities said Friday that state dispensaries have made more than $8.8 million in sales since the first dispensaries opened in the St. Louis region on Oct. 16. Thirty-three dispensaries, out of 192 licensed ones, are now approved to operate.