As states that permit sales of only medical marijuana transition to legalizing recreational use of pot, Portland reporter Gillian Flaccus noticed a trend in Oregon: most medical pot dispensaries were closing. She asked why, and what were the effects on patients?
Teaming with Los Angeles-based data reporter Angel Kastanis, the AP set out to answer that question. Kastanis had spent six months compiling a first-of-its-kind national data set on medical marijuana patients, and Flaccus used it to produce an exclusive all-formats package showing that when states legalize pot for all, medical marijuana patients often are left with fewer, and costlier, options.
Kastanis and Flaccus are members of AP’s marijuana beat team, formed last year to cover the exploding cannabis industry. Two-thirds of the states now have legal medical marijuana and that segment of the overall cannabis market generates billions in revenue. But hard data on patients using medical marijuana has been difficult to find because states have inconsistent record-keeping requirements and practices.
To build a national database, Kastanis reached out to the individual states and Washington, D.C., to get the latest numbers on how many patients were enrolled in medical marijuana programs. It quickly turned into a larger project, aimed at getting historical counts and demographic information to track trends.
It’s “incredibly useful to see this [data] all in one place, and I can already tell it’ll be a helpful resource for years to come.”
— Marijuana beat team journalist, The Boston Globe
Kastanis submitted dozens of formal records requests, combed published program reports and other available public documents, and searched media reports. In some cases, states no longer had access to historical data, so she used website snapshots from The Internet Archive to obtain official PDF documents that had been replaced by the most recent program statistics.
While Kastanis did her work, Flaccus was hearing anecdotes in Oregon – one of the first states with a legal recreational market – that the medical industry was cratering. Patients who used marijuana to ease paid and address other ills felt abandoned. The data reinforced what she was hearing: Nearly two-thirds of Oregon patients had given up their medical cards and the number of retail shops dedicated to medical pot fell from 400 to two after recreational legalization. And prices were going up as a result of competition from recreational pot.
Flaccus traveled the state for two months gathering video and interviews from medical pot growers, processors and dispensaries. After many failed attempts, she found an elderly cancer patient willing to talk on camera about his struggles affording products. She shot and produced the video and took photos, while also writing full-length and abridged versions of the story.
Roberto Gonzalez, the general manager of Western Oregon Dispensary in Sherwood, Ore., poses in front of jars of medical marijuana, April 8, 2019. In Oregon, nearly two-thirds of patients gave up their medical cards after the legalization of recreational marijuana, the AP found. As patients moved on, the number of medical-only retail shops fell from 400 to two, and hundreds of growers who contracted with individual patients walked away.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
Medical marijuana cardholder Scott Donnelly, assisted by his wife and licensed caregiver, Vicki Poppen, leaves Western Oregon Dispensary in Sherwood, Ore., April 26, 2019, after buying medical marijuana to treat muscle spasms caused by his multiple sclerosis. Donnelly visits the medical-only dispensary once a week and relies on it for the cannabis that eases his tremors long enough that he can fall asleep. The dispensary is one of two medical-only shops left in Oregon.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
Medical marijuana cardholder Scott Donnelly shows his card issued by the state of Oregon in Sherwood, Ore., April 26, 2019. Donnelly visits a medical-only dispensary once a week to buy cannabis to help with muscle spasms caused by his multiple sclerosis.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
Erich Berkovitz, owner of a medical marijuana processing company called PharmaEx LLC, holds a tray coated with hashish oil after extracting and processing the material from raw marijuana plants at his lab in Rickreall, Ore., April 12, 2019. Berkovitz runs the last medical marijuana processing company in Oregon. The number of processors for medical marijuana products has fallen from 100 to one since the state legalized the use of cannabis for all adults.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
A contractor at PharmaEx LLC, a medical marijuana processing company, works to process hashish oil in Rickreall, Ore., April 10, 2019.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
In Rickreall, Ore., a vial of extracted marijuana oil is displayed at PharmaEx LLC, the last medical marijuana processing company in Oregon, April 10, 2019.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
Two-time cancer survivor and medical marijuana cardholder Bill Blazina, 73, smokes marijuana on the deck of his neighbor’s home in Waldport, Ore., April 25, 2019. As a medical marijuana patient, Blazina also makes his own high-potency marijuana oil, which he can't afford it at a recreational marijuana store.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
Two-time cancer survivor and medical marijuana cardholder Bill Blazina, 73, lights a marijuana joint on the deck of his neighbor's home in Waldport, Ore., April 25, 2019.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
A tiny container of high-potency marijuana oil, commonly called “Rick Simpson oil,” on the counter at the home of cancer survivor and medical marijuana cardholder Bill Blazina in Waldport, Ore., April 25, 2019. Blazina, 73, cannot afford the oil at a recreational marijuana store and has learned how to make his own in a rice cooker after watching online videos.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
Cyndi Michael, a former medical marijuana grower, holds the last syringes of cannabis tincture she will process for sale in Rickreall, Ore., April 12, 2019. After the legalization of recreational marijuana, Michael, who once grew marijuana for eight patients, could no longer stay profitable and also lost her business selling supplies to other medical marijuana growers.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
A jar of medical marijuana sits on the counter at Western Oregon Dispensary in Sherwood, Ore., April 8, 2019. The dispensary is one of two medical-only marijuana dispensaries left in Oregon.
AP Photo / Gillian Flaccus
Before the package moved in advance, Kastanis, Flaccus and marijuana team leader Frank Baker in Los Angeles held a conference call with AP data customers to discuss the data and the reporting that would go with it.
Two other team members – medical reporter Carla K. Johnson in Seattle and West Desk editor Katie Oyan – made major contributions to the package. Johnson authored a medical marijuana fact-vs.-fiction sidebar while Oyan edited the stories and developed a presentation plan that included a series of GIFs for Twitter, stacking the story and featuring it in the AP marijuana hub.
Flaccus’ story was one of the most popular on AP with strong reader engagement. The Boston Globe created its own marijuana beat team last year and one of its members sent an email thanking AP for the data, calling it “incredibly useful to see this all in one place, and I can already tell it’ll be a helpful resource for years to come.”
Indeed, the data set is just a foundation. As more states enter the market and compile information Kastanis plans to update the data twice a year, allowing AP and its subscribing data customers to track trends in this burgeoning industry at the state, region and national level.
For making the AP the go-to source for data trends on medical marijuana and shining a light on the unexpected negative consequences for patients of legalizing recreational pot use, Flaccus and Kastanis earn AP’s Best of the Week honors.