Here’s When (and Where) Philly’s First Medical Marijuana Dispensary Will Open

Soon, patients who use medical marijuana in Philadelphia won’t have to leave the city to get treatment.

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Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana dispensaries first opened their doors in February.

Two months later, patients in Philadelphia are still waiting for the day when they don’t have to leave the city to get treatment — but soon, that will change.

Restore Integrative Wellness is planning to open in Fishtown in early May at 957 Frankford Avenue. The dispensary (which will set up near The Fillmore and The Barbary), will sell medicinal cannabis in the approved pill, oil, topical, tincture/liquid and vaporizable forms.

Jon Monk, head of marketing for Restore, said the company is just waiting on final approval from the Water Department. He called Fishtown the “perfect location” for the dispensary, which he said will be “welcoming and inviting” and feature a wall of greenery.

Restore also has plans for a site in Elkins Park, at 8003 Old York Road. Monk said that dispensary will likely open its doors sometime this summer.

Why the long wait for medicinal cannabis? The Inquirer reports that community pushback has squashed plans for dispensaries in other neighborhoods in Philadelphia, including in East Mount Airy and Northeast Philadelphia. To complicate things further, the city has banned dispensaries from opening within 500 feet of K–12 schools, playgrounds, parks or daycare centers. Suppliers have complained that the rule makes it difficult to set up shop in the city.

Meanwhile, Keystone Shops, which currently operates in Devon and King of Prussia, is also preparing to open in South Philadelphia in late summer.