August 2018

THE DOCTOR DIFFERENCE Garden Remedies dispensary coming online in Melrose. The additional grow capabilities also would allow the com- pany to meet recreational demand. And sales are ongoing at the New- ton store. Garden Remedies declined to share financial details, but Herold said the company features more than 50 cannabis products in its portfo- lio, sees more than 1,000 customers weekly at its dispensary in Newton and consistently has grown quarterly sales since 2016. G arden Remedies believes having a licensed physician at the helm sets the company apart from other medical marijuana dispensary operators in Massachusetts. Dr. Karen Munkacy founded Garden Rem- edies in 2013 after successfully campaigning for the Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Initiative the previous year. As president and CEO of the Newton-based company, Munkacy pushes a roughly 80-person staff to always put the patients first. “We look at this endeavor with a scien- tific eye and try to make all of our decisions based on empirical evidence,” Munkacy said. For instance, Garden Remedies sets its har- vest schedule using a high-performance liquid chromatography machine that shows when cannabidiol levels are at their peak. Altogether, the Garden Remedies lab holds “well over $1 million worth of equipment.” “It’s really important for us to have the best qual- ity medications for people. A lot of people come to us because every pharmaceutical they’ve tried has failed them, so we’re kind of their last of hope of having their suffering alleviated,” Munkacy said. Munkacy is no stranger to suffering. She is a board- certified anesthesiologist and pain-management special- ist as well as a former faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and University of Southern California medical centers. Munkacy set up Garden Remedies to educate medical marijuana cardholders about options that might relieve their symptoms and about past experiences of other patients. “We’re not their physicians. I am a physi- cian, but I don’t have a doctor-patient rela- tionship with the people who come to us for medical marijuana,” she said. “So, all of our staff is emphatically taught: We can’t give medical advice, but we can help teach people how to use our medications.” Behind the scenes, Munkacy hired a Ph.D. with experience in the pharmaceuti- cal industry to oversee the processing and manufacturing lab in Fitchburg, Massachu- setts. She put someone with a master’s degree in extraction technology as the sec- ond in command and added three other scientists to the team. “Having a scientific background has helped direct how we grow the plant, how we process the medications, the lab equipment we purchase and the people we have,” she said. “We really love to show people what we’ve created, because it’s not a farm, it’s pharma, and the quality is extraordinary.” Munkacy encourages her team to do whatever research and development are necessary to make the best cannabis products possible. “We want the best quality medication for our patients, and sometimes you have to spend a lot more money to do that. But you show what’s possible and how it should be done,” she said. – Adrian D. Garcia Dr. Karen Munkacy founded Garden Remedies in 2013 and serves as president and CEO of the Massachusetts cannabis company. Photo courtesy of Garden Remedies Remembering Medical Sales “We’re applying for adult use, but we’re doubling down on medical at the same time,” Herold said, referring to the new Melrose facility and the company’s delivery service. Garden Remedies’ facility in Mel- rose is on track to be that city’s first medical marijuana dispensary. It’s possible Garden Remedies could offer both recreational and medical cannabis at its dispensa- ries in Newton and Melrose. The company is still sorting out the regu- lations and writing standard operat- ing procedures around new labeling rules, how to package appropriately and other requirements, but Herold said he believes there must be a “virtual separation” between recrea- tional and medical sales, which can be distinguished at the cash regis- ter. That virtual separation means Garden Remedies dispensaries could one day be hybrid medical-recrea- tional shops. 98 • Marijuana Business Magazine • August 2018