First Medical Marijuana Dispensary in Downtown Bethesda Aiming for Saturday Opening

Finishing touches being put on Fairmont Avenue storefront

By Bethany Rodgers

Health for Life Bethesda is scheduled to open next weekend at 4909 Fairmont Ave. Bethany Rodgers

An Arizona-based medical marijuana company is putting the finishing touches on a downtown Bethesda dispensary slated to open Aug. 25.

Health for Life Bethesda will carry a variety of cannabis strains, along with concentrates, tinctures, topical treatments, patches and mints infused with the substance.

It will be the first Maryland store for MPX Bioceutical Corp., which owns a chain of dispensaries in Arizona and Nevada and a Gaithersburg cannabis processing facility. The company is also looking to open dispensaries in Dundalk and White Marsh, Maryland, said Julie Winter, senior vice president of East Coast operations.

The store at 4909 Fairmont Ave. will benefit from its central location and exposure to Woodmont Triangle foot traffic, Winter added.

“I don’t want to go into a back alleyway to get my medicine at 7 p.m.,” she said.

Staff members are stocking up the store and making other final preparations ahead of its Aug. 25 opening.

Winter said she anticipates the dispensary will serve a well-educated clientele with a strong interest in health and wellness and expects they will appreciate the quality of the product at Health for Life.

The store is starting out with nine employees and could add another six when business ramps up.

The dispensary’s interior is decorated with copper accents, rustic wood paneling and navy blue walls reminiscent of the American southwest, where MPX is based.

Several layers of security separate the store’s entrance from the sales floor. Customers walk through the front door into a secure vestibule where a receptionist checks their identification and makes sure they’re registered with the state as a medical marijuana patient. They’re then ushered into a waiting room and, later, through another secured door into the sales area.

The roughly 2,100-square-foot space next to the now-shuttered TacoArepa restaurant has been vacant for several years since the Dansez! Dansez! dance studio left.

Bethany Rodgers can be reached at bethany.rodgers@bethesdamagazine.com.