Dispensary no longer a walk-in facility

The Nirvana Center Dispensary in downtown Globe has changed the way it operates and will soon begin pickup and delivery services, no longer selling on a walk-in basis. Additionally, there will be a physician on site two Saturdays each month to offer referral services and renewals and the store will also sell smoking devices and CBD products from noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Beginning Wednesday, June 12, patients must order medicine online or by phone for pickup at the Broad Street location.

Patients must first register online at the Apache Junction location at nirvanacenter.com or at the Globe location at 200 N. Broad St. A Registry Card issued through the Arizona Department of Health Services and a valid state ID or passport are required to register.

“We’re happy to help patients register so they can have their medicine delivered,” General Manager Mark Baker said. “They can order until 10 a.m. and pick up at 1 p.m. on the same day.”

Nirvana opened on January 28 at the former site of the Green Panda Dispensary on Broad Street, and is operated by Yavapai Herbal Services, Inc. doing business as Nirvana Center Dispensary.

The abrupt shuttering of the Green Panda in April 2018 left a void for patients, particularly those with limited abilities to travel to the Valley or other locations for medicine. It also opened up the possibility for unregulated growing, as Arizona statutes allow anyone with a State of Arizona Department of Health Services medical cannabis authorization to grow up to 12 plants if there is not access to a facility within 25 miles.

When Nirvana opened, home cultivation was nixed, but it is now likely the state will once again allow patients to grow their own.

According to city officials, Nirvana has transferred its dispensary license to a Phoenix location, so legally there is not a dispensary within the 25-mile radius. Therefore, patients should be able to begin home cultivation again, but no one from the City of Globe was able to verify whether it is legal or not at this time.

Calls and an email to the Arizona Department of Health Services by GMT have not received a response as of Monday afternoon (June 10).

“The City’s involvement is limited to zoning and building safety,” Globe City Manager Paul Jepson said via a text message on Monday. “All other operational oversight is the purview of the state.”

Owners of Nirvana, Sarah Warraich and her father-in-law, possess two of the original dispensary licenses handed out by the state, Warrich said in February.

Medical cannabis has been an issue since 1996, when 65 percent of Arizona voters approved Proposition 200, but it was almost immediately repealed by state legislators. In 1998, voters chose to overturn the repeal with Prop 300, but conflicts with federal law made the provision ineffectual.

In 2002, Prop 203 failed with 42.7 percent of the vote.

Prop 203 returned in 2010 and squeaked in by a 50.7 percent vote and in 2016 Prop 205, intended to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, failed with 48.7 percent of the vote.