Legislation passed in the 2025 session has led to significant changes in Utah’s medical cannabis program. Those changes have subsequently led to misinformation being spread among the general public. The misinformation is unfortunate because the facts are so readily available to anyone willing to look for them.
Pop-Up Clinics Banned
The 2025 legislative session offered wins and losses on both sides of the medical cannabis debate. A win for pro cannabis advocates was the addition of two more medical cannabis licenses. Currently, fifteen medical cannabis pharmacies operate in the state. Beehive Farmacy operates two of them, one in Salt Lake City and the other in Brigham City. New legislation will bump the number to seventeen.
In the loss column (for pro cannabis advocates) is a new ban on pop-up medical cannabis card clinics. Prior to the new law taking effect, pharmacies could partner with medical providers to offer temporary, pop-up clinics patients could visit in order to get the medical evaluations necessary for an initial card or card renewal.
What did this look like practically? It essentially meant medical providers setting up shop in a cannabis pharmacy’s parking lot to offer services for a few hours. In order to make the pop-up clinics attractive, medical providers significantly slashed their prices.
Pop-up clinics are no longer allowed. A medical provider can no longer conduct the business of recommending a medical cannabis card within five hundred feet of a medical cannabis pharmacy unless operating within the confines of a previously licensed business.
Two Bits of Misinformation
In discussing the loss of pop-up clinics, two bits of misinformation have begun circulating. Here they are, along with the fact:
1. The Cost of the Medical Card Has Gone Up
It is now being said within pro cannabis circles that the cost of the Utah medical cannabis card is now more expensive with the end of pop-up clinics. It simply isn’t true. Furthermore, it is untrue on multiple levels. Here are the facts:
- Application Fees – The state charges an application fee of $15 for both initial cards and renewals. Those fees have not changed. The cost of the card remains the same as it was in 2024.
- Provider Fees – Medical providers offering discounted fees at pop-up clinics will no longer be conducting such clinics. That means any savings patients may have enjoyed by visiting a pop-up clinic are no more.
The cost of a Utah medical cannabis card has not gone up. Rather, patients are losing access to the discounts medical providers were offering for their services. It is disingenuous to say that medical cards now cost more because pop-up clinics have been banned.
2. Providers Can No Longer Write Cards at Pop-Up Clinics
The second bit of misinformation is that medical providers can no longer write medical cannabis cards at pop-up clinics. This is false because they could never write medical cannabis cards – anywhere. Providers have never had such authority.
All medical providers do is conduct a medical examination and input information into the state’s electronic verification system (EVS). That information is combined with a patient’s application and reviewed by state officials. It is the state that ultimately approves or rejects a medical cannabis card application. A medical provider does not have that authority, nor has he ever had it.
It is important to be accurate about reporting when things in the cannabis space change. Spreading misinformation doesn’t help anyone’s cause, including those who advocate for medical cannabis. Unfortunately, Utah’s recent legislative changes have led to misinformation that will only serve to confuse patients who do not know the facts.
