By Burt Mummolo
KTUL Channel 8
You push your flower to the front, you’re ready to light it and consume,” said Isaac Caviness.
For many, Caviness became the face of the medical marijuana campaign through Green the Vote, and now, he’s about to have the grand opening of his medical marijuana dispensary within his store, HempRx.
“It’s not the instant cash cow that people like to imagine that it is,” he said.
For one thing, there’s the glut of competition with over 100 dispensaries.
Isaac’s prediction? “Out of those 100 dispensaries, give it 18 months and probably 70 to 80 percent of them are going to go back out of business,” he said.
Then, there’s the issue of the cost of cannabis itself.
“The national average right now on cannabis is around $1,200 a pound, and right now, in Oklahoma I would say that the average of what people are paying is closer to around $2,200 a pound. So, nearly double the national average is where we’re at right now,” he said.
That’s due to the amount of demand for it, and because all of Oklahoma’s marijuana has to be grown within state lines. You can’t import it.
“So, we can’t bring in Colorado product; we can’t bring in Oregon product. If you could buy product from Oregon right now wholesale, you could get it for less than $500 a pound,” he said.
Finally, what are Isaac’s thoughts on whether or not Oklahoma will finally embrace recreational use of marijuana?
“I think it will. I’m not sure if it’s going to happen in 2019 or if it’ll happen in 2020, but I think that it will,” he said.
