Pot pizza now offered at medical marijuana dispensary
A Massachusetts medical marijuana dispensary has created a new option for patients who don't want to smoke their dose of pot or eat it in the form of sweets: pot pizza.
The cannabis-infused pizza has been on "the menu" for about three weeks at Ermont Inc., in Quincy, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Boston. And it's receiving rave reviews.
"I've found that's the only thing that helps," patient Wes Francois told CBS Boston's Juli McDonald.
"I want to stay away from painkillers. This is a great substitute for it. It's amazing how creative they get," Francois added.
Ermont's director of operations, Seth Yaffe, said the company has a whole range of marijuana edibles, but he wanted to offer meals that patients could eat without a lot of sugar.
The 6-inch cheese pizzas sell for $38 apiece. The tomato sauce contains 125 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol, referred to as THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. The company has sold about 200 pizzas already.
Ermont has been open since October and integrates all phases of production including a lab, marijuana growing areas, retail space and a kitchen.
Using years of experience in Boston restaurants, team members are constantly looking for new ways to infuse flavorless liquid cannabinoids into ingredients and sauces. Their edible menu helps make life more normal for patients in pain.
"A lot of our patients really wanted to basically figure out a different way to medicate that didn't always remind them that they were trying to do something to take care of themselves," said Yaffe.
"It really makes medicating seem like something that isn't as scary," he said.
Ermont treats 300-400 patients on a busy day, and offers more traditional products as well.
Other pot-laced products include condiments and ingredients that can be added to a person's home cooking.
"A lot of our top sellers right now are olive oil, honey, peanut butter," Yaffe said.
"We're working on a vegan mayonnaise right now that patients will be able to put on a sandwich."
All of the edible products are labeled with dosages and packaged in childproof containers and meant for patients with medical needs. The state's recreational regulations are still to be determined.
As for ordering pizza toppings, Yaffe says patients will have to add their own.
Only people with state-issued medical marijuana ID cards are eligible to buy the pies.
