For years, Shannon Morrill, co-owner of Something Wicked Cannabis Dispensary in Bethel, has reluctantly turned customers away.
Their requests to buy cannabis for themselves and loved ones would tend to push them past the state’s daily purchase limit. Now, under a new state law that took effect this month, Morrill no longer has to disappoint customers at her and her husband’s dispensary who want more than an ounce.
“It’s super rare that anyone gets to an ounce, but when they do, it’s nice to just be able to know that we don’t have to turn them away,” Morrill said. “They don’t have to come back another day.”
Under the new law, which ups the maximum one-day amount of cannabis purchased from 1 ounce to 2, customers at licensed dispensaries can make fewer visits and have more flexibility while they shop in the state, said state officials and some cannabis business operators.
The change was intended in part to encourage Vermonters to purchase products through licensed retailers rather than the illicit market, said James Pepper, chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board.
“Anything that removes a prohibition will hopefully encourage more consumers to purchase regulated cannabis,” Pepper said.
The equivalency chart was also updated as part of the legislation, doubling the amounts allowed in other cannabis products, including 28 grams of cannabis concentrates, 16 vape cartridges of 1 gram each, and 16,800 milligrams of THC in edible products.
Morrill said that most of her everyday customers are typically buying cannabis for medical reasons and were not getting anywhere close to the previous purchase limit. However, the few who did were typically those who used the cannabis for baking or gave it to friends and family.
In Vermont, adults 21 or older can give cannabis to other adults as long as they receive nothing in return.
“They’re looking to purchase enough to make their effort worthwhile when they process it,” she said of people who bake with cannabis. “Just like you might make three dozen cookies … instead of one dozen at a time.”