SLO’s first recreational cannabis shop is now open for business
After years of planning and several months of building improvements, the first recreational cannabis retail store in San Luis Obispo has opened for business.
Megan’s Organic Market SLO debuted Monday, welcoming its first customers to the shop located at 280 Higuera St. in the former Drum Circuit building at the intersection of Higuera and High streets.
Co-owner Megan Souza is now calling the area the “So-Hi” district, short for South Higuera with the suggestion of an altered state of mind.
Nearby businesses include the Nautical Bean coffee shop and Lube N Go. Ben Franklin’s Sandwich Co. also is located about a block away.
Megan’s Organic Market, open to those 21 years and older, was granted its cannabis business permit in March 2019 (pending a background check that it later passed), after a competitive process involving nine retail applicants.
“This literally has been years in planning,” said Souza, a majority owner of the business with her boyfriend Eric Powers. They have collaborated with an ownership team that includes two other couples.
“We’re open, and pretty much from the get-go people have started pouring in,” Souza said.
Marijuana products for sale
Megan’s Organic Market products range from about $5 to roughly $100, including edibles, drinks and flowers for smoking. Those include cannabis dark chocolate bon-bons, jerky, pretzels, and sparkling beverages.
The business will soon be open to curbside pickup as well, Souza said.
Two other cannabis businesses are planning to open in SLO in the coming months as well — SLO Cal Roots at 3535 S. Higuera St. and Natural Healing Center (NHC) at 2640 Broad St.
NHC Chief Operating Officer Nick Andre said that the dispensary on Broad is targeted to open in late November after further renovations of the site.
SLO Cal Roots was last operator to be approved by the city for a permit and it’s waiting on a Planning Commission hearing for a building design, with hopes to be open by the end of the year, the company said in an email.
Souza said that the new shop has 40 employees and is currently open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. She said the launch celebrates an important step for legalization in the city and region.
“We want to be a business other cities in SLO County can look at as a successful model that could be an example for what other cities could do as well, maybe in Paso Robles or Atascadero,” Souza said.
Grover Beach, Morro Bay and SLO are the only cities that have approved recreational marijuana shops thus far. And SLO County’s Board of Supervisors also does not have majority support for allowing retail cannabis shops in unincorporated areas.
The era of legalization
Souza said that a black market for marijuana still exists in SLO County.
“I think there are many smaller operators who either don’t want to or don’t have the capability of moving into the legal market,” Souza said. “It has been set up for bigger operators to succeed, but not smaller ones.”
Souza said that compliance regulations are extensive, including laboratory testing of her products, to confirm the designated amounts of psychoactive ingredients, for example.
“I don’t want to live (in the black market),” Souza said. “I want to be able to walk out the door and tell my neighbors ‘hi’ and let them know what I do.”
Store employee Patrick Bishop said that he has seen the laws evolve since 2007 when he first arrived in SLO County, observing the presence of illegal operators.
“I’ve seen how the black market grows,” Bishop said. “It’s just cool to be part of something legal, part of something exciting, part of something new and revolutionary. SLO is true to my heart, and to be part of the first marijuana dispensary in town, it goes a long way for me.”
Seeking to grow
Souza said that product options that offer small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are available, as well as concentrated higher amounts, to allow customers choices.
She said cannabis commonly is consumed to help people cope with pain, anxiety, insomnia and stress.
The Megan’s Markets businesses, first opened in 2013, now also include a CBD store with non-psychoactive ingredients in Morro Bay and a cultivation site in Los Osos where they just planted 5,000 cannabis plants.
Souza is working toward opening businesses in other California locations, such as Fresno and Fullerton — as well as in Vermont.
Souza said that her typical customers are over the age of 50 in SLO, including soccer moms and working professionals, after she initially thought her clientele would be mainly college students.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 1:44 PM.
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