Honolulu’s third dispensary is preparing to enter the fledgling medical marijuana market, following a blessing today of its Kapahulu location.
Cure Oahu, backed by a local private investment group, hopes to open as early as next week at 727 Kapahulu Ave., in what was a Bank of Hawaii branch building.
The 5,434-square-foot building has had a major makeover to include a high-tech 2,400-square-foot open lobby and dispensing area with two private consultation booths and large touch-screen tablet stations where customers can browse through information and choose from a variety of strains.
Patients will be able to register and order their products online before coming into the dispensary, where they can pick up their orders at one of the kiosks. The newly renovated space is minimally decorated with large posters of athletes, including swimmers and surfers, and motivational messages about “reconnecting with who you are.”
“We’re trying to aim for people to be able to have that active lifestyle that they might not currently have or at least give them hope that at some point they will reach that point where they’re going to be able to do things they haven’t been able to do in years,” said Tori Staples, assistant dispensary director, adding that the business has already registered about 100 patients. “There’s thousands of customers on this island, and we hope to be able to serve all of them.”
Available strains
The company will initially sell 10 strains including indica, sativa and hybrid, as well as tinctures and lozenges, and later expand its selection to include oils and other products for Oahu’s 6,900 registered patients, said Dispensary Director George Bullock. Like the other dispensaries, patient education will be a primary focus, he said.
“We’re approaching it from a medical standpoint. There still may be a stigma attached to cannabis,” he said. “Maybe it’s their first time, they’ve never used it, but they’re going to explore this as an option for their qualifying condition. We hope that they’ll be able to come in here and feel very relaxed. It’s not like a medical doctor’s waiting office.”
The dispensary is hoping to bring competitive pricing and multiple strains to help a variety of ailments.
The strains include Cookie Wreck, a cross between Girl Scout Cookies and Trainwreck, for “intense mental and physical relaxation” to help with muscle spasms and pain.
“We have no anticipation of running out of products for our customers. It’s going to be very competitive pricing to the dispensaries currently open,” Staples said. “We want to make sure we’re providing high-quality cannabis at affordable rates for the people who need it. It’s important for us to really concentrate on the medical cannabis market and treat it as a medicine.”
How to get it
Medical marijuana was legalized in Hawaii in 2000, but the state’s first dispensary, Maui Grown Therapies, only opened in August. That was followed by Oahu’s first locations: Aloha Green Apothecary and Noa Botanicals, both in central Honolulu.
Bank of Hawaii sold the site of its 55-year-old branch at 727 Kapahulu Ave. for $4.53 million in 2015 to Honolulu-based investment firm Tradewind Capital Group, a former partner in Cure Oahu.
The Kapahulu dispensary will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Customers can register at cureoahu.com before visiting the dispensary and preorder products for pickup.
