Plano dispensary becomes one of first in North Texas to offer medical marijuana onsite – Dallas News
Science reporter
Customers lined up inside Goodblend in Plano at 10 a.m. Friday, waiting to buy medical marijuana available in gummies, tinctures and chocolate bars.
A rush of customers isn’t unusual for the shop, which opened in 2023. But this morning was different: After last year’s expansion of the Texas Compassionate Use Program for medical marijuana, Goodblend can now keep inventory onsite, allowing patients to fill prescriptions and pick up products the same day. It is one of the first dispensaries in North Texas to offer this option.
Goodblend is one of three companies authorized to sell medical marijuana in Texas, the others being Texas Original and Fluent. Goodblend received its license in 2017, began deliveries in 2019 and opened its first retail store in Austin in 2023. It expanded to North Texas later that year, setting up a location along State Highway 121 in Plano.
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Under previous legislation, patients eligible under the Texas Compassionate Use Act could visit the Plano store to place or pick up orders. But the shop couldn’t keep items overnight, said Nick Fallon, Goodblend’s market president for Texas. Instead, orders were delivered each morning from the company’s distribution facility in Austin and any that weren’t picked up made the three-hour trip back at night.
“You could barely call it a store,” Fallon said, noting it was just a place “where you would pick up your order. Now we built a vault in the back, and we store product there, enough for a few weeks.”
“This is a really good moment for us,” said Jervonne Singletary, vice president of compliance and government relations at Parallel, Goodblend’s parent company. “We fought for this for an entire year with the state Legislature just to be able to have overnight storage.”
For Leslie Lewis, being able to see medical marijuana products in person — and buy them that day — is a game changer. The 37-year-old, who lives near Goodblend’s Plano location, uses the drug to manage her pain from multiple sclerosis.
“Tylenol can barely touch the type of neuropathic pain that I have, so this typically helps a lot,” she said. “If I run out, I have to wait until the order comes in and then pick up. Being available the same day, that’s very helpful.”
Julie Espinoza, 60, uses medical marijuana in the form of edibles and tinctures to manage her pain from arthritis. It also helps with her anxiety, which she said developed after surviving melanoma and cervical cancer.
The Frisco resident visited Goodblend’s Plano store with her husband, Tracy, to pick up her prescription. She recently began obtaining her medical marijuana from Goodblend after going nearly two weeks without it because of the winter storm.
Receiving medical marijuana through the mail could take weeks, she said, adding “it’s such a great mental relief” to simply go to the store instead.
Any permanent Texas resident with a qualifying condition can get medical marijuana through a physician registered in the state’s Compassionate Use Program. Medical conditions include epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and cancer. Last year’s expansion of the state’s Compassionate Use Act through House Bill 46 added traumatic brain injury, Crohn’s disease and chronic pain to the list.
HB 46 also broadens the types of products dispensaries can offer. Goodblend sells edibles, THC-infused beverages, tinctures and topicals. The dispensary hopes to offer an inhaler in the coming months, Singletary said, and is working with regulatory agencies to get approval.
In December, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued conditional licenses to nine new medical marijuana distributors, with three more expected by April. Those companies cannot begin operating until they receive full approval by the agency.
If all are approved, Texas would have 15 dispensaries statewide — an expansion that supporters of the program told The Dallas Morning News could improve access to medical marijuana for patients.
Miriam Fauzia is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.
Miriam has previously written for USA Today, The Daily Beast, Inverse, The New York Times and others. She holds a master's degree in immunology from the University of Oxford and another master's in journalism from Boston University.
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