After over a decade of work, a dispensary called The Farmacy Berkeley has opened on Sacramento Street on Feb. 7, as first reported by Berkeleyside.
Committed to offering high-quality, sustainable cannabis products, The Farmacy Berkeley is focused on educating seniors about the health and wellness benefits of cannabis. The dispensary also serves as a resource and a “non-judgemental” space to inform the community about cannabis use, according to The Farmacy Berkeley website.
“What makes us different is that number one we have a space where seniors can come and learn about cannabis,” said Sue Taylor, executive director of The Farmacy Berkeley. “It’s a place where you can bring your mother. It’s a place where you can bring your grandparents. It’s a place where you can bring city officials — because of the professionalism, integrity, quality of medicine and the team with the Glass House Group.”
The Farmacy Berkeley stemmed from iCANN, an organization founded by Taylor, her son and daughter-in-law in 2009, which worked toward the goal of creating a community dispensary, according to the Farmacy Berkeley website.
The dispensary partners with the Glass House Group, a vertically integrated supplier and branding company for cannabis products that, according to its website, works toward growing while also maintaining a small environmental footprint.
The group partnered with Taylor because the group felt that Taylor’s mission was in line with the “ethos” of its mission, according to Graham Farrar, president of Glass House Group.
“We’re big believers in cannabis for the benefit of society and for helping people and think it’s a tremendous opportunity to bring that to the world and make the world a better place,” Farrar said.
Taylor is also launching her own exclusive cannabis brand called Mama Sue, which will be sold at The Farmacy Berkeley, according to a Farmacy Berkeley press release. The launch will initially include tinctures formulated to help alleviate sleep issues and chronic pain.
The elderly population often suffers from ailments that make it harder for them to give back to the younger generations, according to Taylor. She added that cannabis can help alleviate these ailments.
“Elders are often overmedicated. As wisdom keepers, we are being robbed of our potential to share our experiences and pass on knowledge to younger generations,” Taylor said in the press release.
Taylor plans to have a class for adult children of aging parents that will help educate this demographic on the specifics surrounding cannabis and what it can do for their parents.
According to Taylor, adult children of aging parents come to her the most to receive more information on how they may help their parents alleviate pain.
“They want the same,” Taylor said. “They just want their parents happy and out of pain and cannabis can do that for them because the pharmaceutical approach to health care just isn’t working.”