What a wild ride 2021 has been! Full of ups and downs, the unexpected and the long anticipated – we’re so glad we could share it with you, our First State Compassion community. We wanted to take a moment to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished, and seen accomplished by our community and industry, as we begin to look forward to 2022 and the exciting new opportunities ahead of us.
FSC ‘Went Green’ Like Never Before
We were itching for positive change as we kicked off 2021 with our initiative to do away with plastic carry-away bags in our stores! We understand that serving more than 10,000 Delaware patients adds up to a lot of wasted plastic, so it was important to us to do our part to cut down on wasteful plastic use and help influence our community to do the same! But it wasn’t enough to just do away with our plastic bags, (and there are some limited-use plastic items that we must have as an operating dispensary), so we worked with our community! FSC is proud to be partnered with Eco Plastic Products of Delaware, who collect our waste plastic at the end of each month and turn it in to useful goods for the local community like park benches!
We Shared Some Great Knowledge
We don’t want to just be your resource for premier medical cannabis products, we also want to be your resource for education on the premier cannabis products that you use! We want our patients to understand how important it is to know what strain of medicine is best for them and to have a grasp on what terpenes are and how they come into play medicinally. We even launched an informative terpene key to allow our patients to do their own research on what strains might be best for their medical conditions!
The Industry Grew and Grew!
As the cannabis plants we grow in our centers remind us, you can’t rush the growing process. 2021 saw our industry stretching its legs and starting to come into its own. Many states now have some form of legalization or decriminalization in place, with New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Virginia doing their part to legalize or decriminalize cannabis.
We also saw positive developments in corporate mindset. Amazon changed its policy on cannabis consumption, Apple revoked an App Store policy banning cannabis-related apps (allowing giants like Leafly and Weedmaps to join the platform) and the NFL, MLB and UFC all loosened or removed rules around cannabis consumption among its athletes!
Looking Ahead to 2022
All of these exciting advancements have us poised for an amazing 2022 – full of new, tasty and exciting opportunities for everyone involved in the industry. Whether you’re a current FSC patient, a prospective medical marijuana cardholder or a member of the local community interested in the industry, we can’t wait to share more with you on where the future is headed.
If you’d like to learn more and stay up to date on First State Compassion and the evolving medical cannabis industry, sign up for our newsletter, Herb Blurb.