GARFIELD RIDGE — We’re all familiar with the concept of a bartender: That friendly face behind the counter ready to serve up your favorite drink to help you relax.
At the neighborhood’s new medical marijuana dispensary, you’ll find something similar.
“We call them ‘budtenders,’” said Steven Turk, CEO of Midway Dispensary, 5648 S. Archer Ave.
Opened on April 26, Midway Dispensary serves up a large menu of medical marijuana products to eligible patients.
Part of the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program launched by the Illinois Department of Public Health, the dispensary is the first of its kind on the Southwest Side and one of three licensed in Chicago. The other two are in Logan Square and Andersonville.
So far it’s been a frustrating start for the brains behind the business.
Before Turk and his business partners decided to open the dispensary, they expected there to be a lot more registered medical marijuana users
“I thought there would be 50,000 people registered,” Turk said.
There are 6,200.
Turk blames the state’s complex application process, which requires fingerprinting, a background check and a note from a doctor.
To qualify for a medical marijuana card, patients must suffer from one of 29 medical conditions, including cancer, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma and Parkinson’s disease.
“It’s an insane process to get it,” said Joey Pesoli, 27, of the 5300 block of New England. He’s been a medical marijuana user for the past three months. “I don’t have to go through this to go into a doctor’s office and get a hundred OxyContin pills. What is really more dangerous?”
Since he was 14, Pesoli has suffered from Crohn's’s Disease, a debilitating condition that causes severe inflammation in his intestines.
“It’s been pretty hellish,” said Pesoli, who has been in and out of hospitals for the last decade. “I’d wake up and I’d be throwing up all day for hours and hours and hours. I couldn’t take it.”
Before he began smoking medical marijuana, Pesoli took prescribed pain medication. He’s been on every type of pain pill from Vicodin to OxyContin to Dilaudid — medications known to cause fatal addictions.
“I got super addicted to it. … It was brutal, man,” Pesoli said. “You’re like a zombie when you’re constantly on pain medication.”
Pesoli eventually talked with is doctor and asked, “What about medical marijuana?”
A few months later, Pesoli received a medical marijuana card.
Marijuana has changed Pesoli’s life. Smoking a small amount relieves his pain and helps him sleep. He is now on a small dose of pain medication and plans to kick prescribed pain pills completely.
“Medical marijuana is so much better than pain pills,” he said. “People aren’t stupid anymore.”
Pesoli now visits a dispensary in Justice, but he plans to check out Midway Dispensary since it’s close to home. He hopes to see more dispensaries open throughout the city.
“It’s shows they’re opening more and more places, which is good for people who need it,” Pesoli said.
Medical marijuana card holders will find a variety of products at Midway Dispensary.
There are buds that can be smoked, food made with cannabis compounds and oils that can be vaporized.
The law limits patients to 2½ ounces of marijuana every two weeks.
At dispensaries in places like Las Vegas and Denver, patients can check out marijuana products at the front of the store — almost like perusing the glass cases at a jewelry store. In Illinois, all marijuana products must be kept out of plain sight.
The business has to employ a full-time security guard to keep a constant watch.
Since Midway Dispensary opened in April, most visitors have not had a medical marijuana card; they showed up looking for information about how to get one.
The staff at Midway Dispensary is happy to help.
On one wall you’ll find a shelf stocked with informational brochures about how marijuana can treat diseases like arthritis, HIV and glaucoma.
“I want the awareness to be brought to the forefront,” Turk said.
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