Medical cannabis cards in 30 minutes: Utah company streamlines the process and delivers to your door

WholesomeCo delivers medical cannabis products to 99% of Utah. Photo: WholesomeCo.

PARK CITY, Utah — For many Utahns curious about medical cannabis, the process of obtaining a card can feel intimidating. Between scheduling multiple appointments, navigating confusing state websites and facing costs that can exceed $250, it’s no wonder people give up before they start.

“I think the barrier to entry is probably one of the biggest things that’s holding people back,” said Diana Arena, Vice President, Growth Marketing for WholesomeCo, Utah’s leading medical cannabis delivery service.

WholesomeCo has spent the past five years building its business around a simple premise: removing obstacles that keep patients from accessing relief. The Bountiful-based company has a strong handle on Utah’s medical cannabis market by focusing on statewide delivery and patient education, rather than solely on product sales.

From food delivery to cannabis access

Co-founder Chris Jeffery brought an unlikely background to the medical cannabis industry. After building and selling OrderUp, a food delivery marketplace that processed 20,000 orders daily across 40 markets, Jeffery moved to Park City a decade ago. When Utah’s medical cannabis program launched, he saw an opportunity to apply his logistics expertise to a new challenge.

WholesomeCo opened its single storefront in Bountiful in August 2020, during the height of COVID-19.

“We took a consumer-first approach,” Jeffery said. “We want to interact with customers. We want to learn from customers and behaviors, and then we’ll retrofit the supply chain to make sure that we’re making the right products at the right price.”

Utah’s regulatory framework made this approach viable. The state limited physical storefronts to avoid the proliferation seen in Colorado, instead prioritizing patient access through delivery from the outset.

Breaking down barriers

The traditional path to a medical cannabis card in Utah involves visiting a clinic, paying up to $200 for the card itself, scheduling a separate pharmacist consultation and wrestling with the state’s Electronic Verification System — a notoriously frustrating software that locks users out after two incorrect password attempts.

“We’re trying to make that first entry into the program the easiest,” said Arena. “What could be a $400 experience, we want to turn it into a $50 to $100 experience. Remove that friction around the cost of entry, with the added benefits of saving time and convenience.”

Lucy J’aime, Community Engagement Manager, coordinates WholesomeCo’s patient events, developed a workaround. Her team hosts events twice a week in Bountiful and monthly activations in Mill Creek, where patients can complete the entire process in roughly 30 minutes—all in one location.

“We help the patient not just set up their consult to see the provider, but we schedule their time with the pharmacist, oftentimes remote, so they don’t have to travel,” she said. “We set them up with a WholesomeCo account. We give them discounts that they’re actually able to buy products and test products without burning a hole in their pocket.”

By partnering with clinics willing to offer reduced rates, WholesomeCo has arranged card costs as low as $25 for a year or six-month free trials at select events. Leveraging one of the largest patient networks in Utah, WholesomeCo reduces costs, making entry fees more manageable.

After obtaining a card, new patients face another hurdle: the initial product purchase.

Overcoming stigma

Jeffery acknowledges that decades of cannabis prohibition created stigma that still affects how people view medical use.

“There’s been a stigma around cannabis because of the multi-decade-long prohibition of cannabis,” Jeffery said. “What we’re finding out, the world is finding out, is that there is real medical benefit to cannabis.”

Jeffery uses medical cannabis himself for chronic elbow tendonitis.

“The only thing that really helps me is a topical cannabis cream, and that really alleviates my pain, and it’s better than me just constantly taking Advil or Tylenol,” he said. “It solves the problem, actually better than Advil or Tylenol. It’s longer lasting, too.”

His mother uses low-dose edibles for sleep issues as an alternative to Ambien.

Many patients don’t realize they qualify for a card or assume their condition isn’t serious enough. But qualifying conditions include chronic pain, which encompasses a broad range of issues.

“People think that chronic pain has to be like, I’ve had five ACL surgeries. No, it doesn’t have to be that extreme,” Jeffery said.

The pharmacist’s advantage

Utah’s medical cannabis program requires all patients to consult with a pharmacist before their first purchase, which you can do through WholesomeCo, often remotely.

“You have a pharmacist consult, and you talk about your chronic pain or what ails you,” Jeffery said. “If you’re not into, let’s say, vaping. The pharmacist will walk you through the optionality of different form factors and products within those form factors as your first step.”

Patients can schedule follow-up consultations anytime they have questions about products or need guidance adjusting their approach.

“If you didn’t get what you needed the first go around, you go back and schedule another pharmacist and say, ‘Hey, this didn’t really work for me,'” Jeffery said.

WholesomeCo’s website offers additional resources, including Patient Stories that showcase how people with various conditions use medical cannabis. These narratives help prospective patients see themselves reflected in others’ experiences.

Serving Summit County

For Summit and Wasatch County residents, WholesomeCo offers delivery three days per week. While the company has a physical store in Bountiful, Jeffery said many locals don’t realize delivery is available.

WholesomeCo delivers to the entire state at a minimum weekly service, and offers same-day delivery to the Wasatch Front seven days a week.

“Since we reach more customers and different profiles of customers, young, middle-aged, older people that like certain form factors, we have to carry more merchandise,” Jeffery said. “We think our menu is the most vast menu from an optionality perspective in the market.”