The nation's largest multi-state operator of medical and recreational cannabis dispensaries is nearly set to open its latest dispensary here in Tucson — and expansion further south is already in the cannabis-infused tea leaves.
"We're just waiting for the state to wrap it's inspections today," said Kayla Weed, Trulieve's marketing manager for their Southwest hub.
Weed said she expects to have the latest Trulieve-branded shop, located at 4659 E. 22nd St. open by September 17, as long as all goes to plan.
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However, that's not the end of Trulieve's expansion into Southern Arizona.
Weed confirmed that the dispensary giant plans to open a new dispensary in Sierra Vista within the next few months.
"I believe a tentative date is by end of year," she said. "There isn't a 100% date nailed on that, but that one will come off the heels of Tucson."
With more than 150 dispensary locations nationwide, the Florida-based chain will have twenty Arizona locations with the addition of the planned Sierra Vista location.
Well, sort of.
Technically, there already are two Trulieve-owned dispensaries operating in Tucson: the shops are just currently branded under the name Harvest.
In October last year, Trulieve bought-out rival operator Harvest to become the largest dispensary operator in the game, and the defacto "biggest game in town" in Arizona.
According to Weed, all Harvest dispensaries operated by Trulieve in Arizona will eventually be re-branded under the Trulieve banner.
"I don't know the exact timeline on that, but I do know that is the intention," she said.
Ricardo Baca, former Marijuana Editor for the Denver Post and founder and CEO of Grasslands, a PR and ad agency with a focus in the cannabis industry, said that he thinks a large cannabis brand, like a Trulieve, will soon become the "Uber" of the industry.
"It is inevitable," Baca said. "Because of course we're talking about this agricultural good, this commodity crop, this CPG product. And we have that (brand name) in every other area of those categories and cannabis is going mainstream."
While Baca said he hoped the candidate to become the "brand name" of cannabis would be one of the dispensaries in his stable, like Cookies, another large MSO (multi-state operator) with locations in numerous states and a burgeoning international presence.
"You know, it's fans are getting the Cookies logo tattooed on their body," he said.
For her part, however, Weed thinks Trulieve is sitting pretty to make itself the first company in cannabis to truly make the mainstream. Although it already has more than 9,000 employees, Weed believes it's just the beginning.
"I think that Trulieve will be a house brand, a legacy brand," she said. "When we're all looking back at the end of this, we're staring at Trulieve — a lot of the things things we've done across the U.S. are truly pioneering."
