When marijuana flower hit the shelves of Louisiana’s nine licensed medical marijuana pharmacies in January, one might have expected huge numbers of new patients from places like Baton Rouge and New Orleans, with high populations and generally progressive politics.
But state data shows the highest uptake has been in some unlikely parts.
Lafourche, Lafayette, Calcasieu, Beauregard and St. Tammany parishes, respectively, have the largest share of residents who bought a legal marijuana product in January and February, the first two months flower was available. They range from 2.5% in Lafourche — by far the highest — to 0.8% in St. Tammany. The February data runs through the 23rd. The user trends largely track those seen from 2019, when the medical marijuana program began, through the end of 2021.
By comparison, just 0.4% of residents in East Baton Rouge Parish bought a marijuana product in January or February, ranking it 19th in the state, behind DeSoto Parish. Orleans, where the smell of cannabis is nearly ubiquitous, ranks 35th and Jefferson ranks 39th.
Some of uptake rates — like the relatively astronomical rate seen in Lafourche — have confounded observers of the program.
But there are various theories for some of the other hotspots.
Kevin Caldwell, Southeast legislative manager for the Marijuana Policy Project, said the explanation may boil down to simple dollars and cents. The black market for pot is well established and relatively affordable, especially compared to the prices of products on Louisiana’s marijuana pharmacy shelves.
That’s especially true in Louisiana’s cities. Some legal strains of flower cost more than $60 for an eighth of an ounce, well above the $30-$40 eighths people can find on the street. Pharmacy owners have pointed to some strains that cost less, though the supply has been uneven in the first couple months, with limited options and restrictions on the amount people can buy.
“When we look at Orleans, Jefferson and East Baton Rouge, these are communities where the illicit marketplace has been present for decades,” Caldwell said. “I think in those situations patients have an option. Do they go to the illicit marketplace where they’ve been getting their medicine for years? Or do they go to the medical program, with high prices and a lack of options?”
Of the 20 parishes with the highest rate of medical marijuana use, only four — Calcasieu, St. Tammany, Caddo and East Baton Rouge — have populations higher than 200,000. Outer-ring suburbs like Tangipahoa and Livingston, as well as small urban areas like Rapides and Terrebonne and more the more rural Allen and Webster parishes all have relatively high rates of medical marijuana use. Some of those places only have a few hundred patients, but relatively high uptake rates.
Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, noted that many people in rural parts of the state, especially up north, have to drive hours to get to the nearest pharmacy. The state only licensed nine pharmacies; while they are spread across different geographic areas, the distance to the nearest pharmacy in the the rural, sparsely populated northern parts of the state tends to be longer.
Bagley also said that patients from Texas have been asking him how to take part in the program. Malcolm Broussard, executive director of the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy, said the current law doesn’t bar out-of-state patients; in fact, data shows that around 660 of the 43,609 people who have gotten medical marijuana legally in Louisiana — about 1.5% — are from other states. Those aren’t included in the parish data.
Bagley posited the high uptake rates from the north shore could be driven by a relatively wealthy retiree community.
“Those are some of the biggest users, those who have gotten older, cancer patients, arthritic patients,” Bagley said. “Those are the patients using it the most because they’re having the most success with it.”
Compared to other urban areas in Louisiana, Lafayette has seen high enthusiasm for medical marijuana. Its uptake rate of 1.6% in the first two months of 2022 was second-highest in the state.
Eric Vidrine, who owns the region’s only marijuana pharmacy, The Apothecary Shoppe, said people in the Acadiana region have been “overwhelmingly receptive to the idea.” He said patients he’s seen don’t like the prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines for pain or anxiety.
“I feel like it’s across political persuasions,” he said. “People are fascinated with it and are open to it.”
Vidrine and others involved in Louisiana’s program expect roughly 3% of the state’s residents to eventually take part in the medical marijuana program, assuming it hits similar rates to other mature medical marijuana markets. So far, Lafourche Parish is the only jurisdiction that has gotten anywhere close to that threshold.
John Condos, who owns Medicis Pharmacy in Lake Charles, said he doesn’t know why nearby Beauregard Parish has seen such a high uptake rate. But in southwest Louisiana, he attributes the rise in medical marijuana use largely to an increase in doctors setting up shop and recommending the drug in the area.
He said his pharmacy was among the first to allow online ordering, and also has promoted educational content on social media. Pharmacies aren’t allowed to “advertise” their products but can educate patients about it.
“With Calcasieu (Parish, where Lake Charles is located), we’ve had some recommending physicians come out,” he said. “We’ve probably caught up, where we were a little slower (at first), now people have access to recommending physicians.”
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