NEWS NO PRESCRIPTION FOR MEDICAL MRIJUANA COMPANIES, FINANICAL ASSISTANCE DURING COVID-19 CRISIS IS A CURE THEY CAN'T GET BY JUSTIN VELLUCCI - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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hris Kohan is staring down some tough economic decisions. His business, which boasts three Pittsburgh-area locations, is doing well, all things considered, but he continues to dole out “COVID pay” to a handful of employees worried about coming to work due to health concerns. Pennsylvania has deemed his business “essential” during the pandemic but he is not eligible for Small Business Administration (SBA) or Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding from the federal government. And his tax situation is so complicated, he’s hoping Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. help resolve it. “In this time, the one thing we’ve learned is we are an essential business,” Kohan said. “The fact that we’re not treated like an essential business is troubling.” Kohan doesn’t run a health clinic or a manufacturing line dedicated to churning out PPE. He is part of Pennsylvania’s fastest-growing industry, one that has generated more than $520 million in sales in the past two years. Kohan dispenses medical cannabis and, like many in the industry in the age of COVID-19, he needs help. Kohan, who previously worked in media sales, is the CEO and co-founder of The Healing Center, which runs dispensaries in Monroeville, Washington and Cranberry.
He doesn’t prefer to talk about The Healing Center in dollars and cents. “Our business has grown – I’ll tell you that,” he laughed. On March 20, the state Department of Health announced temporary suspension of some restrictions on medical cannabis, including the waiving of purchase limits, the elimination of caregiver background checks, and allowing for remote consultations for renewal of medical cannabis ID cards. Since then, The Healing Center locations have been operating on a different level, Kohan said. They were some of the first businesses in the region to install customer-separating Plexiglass dividers and use electrostatic fogging to clean overnight. They only allow a maximum of 10 people, including staff, in their buildings at once. People with special needs can pick up their medical cannabis curb-side. Security is jacked up. But because marijuana, federally, is listed as a Schedule I drug – the same as heroin and LSD – businesses directly or indirectly related to the sale of it are not eligible for federal loans from the SBA. Janet Heyl, a spokesperson of the SBA’s Western Pennsylvania District Office, declined the Current’s request to interview the head of the district office. “Since SBA doesn’t provide federal loans to that industry, we would not be able to comment,” Heyl
8 | MAY 12, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT
wrote in an email to the paper. But, in Pennsylvania, medical cannabis is no small industry. Nearly 300,000 Pennsylvanians – a group roughly the size of the population of the state’s second-largest city – are registered for the medical marijuana program, health department spokesman Nate Wardle told the Current recently. More than 295,000 patients have been certified for the program and more than 183,000 patients have active certifications. There is a growing industry that
serves that population – more than 1,300 certifying practitioners, 80 operational dispensaries and 23 growers and processes, Wardle said. “In the midst of COVID-19, we need to ensure medical marijuana patients have access to medication,” state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said in a press release. “We want to be sure card-holders in the medical marijuana program can receive medication for one of 23 serious medical conditions during this difficult time.” The nation’s medical marijuana market employs 240,000 – making it
