Courtesy Photo / Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation
A worker at Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation, one of Texas' approved cannabis suppliers, harvests buds from marijuana plants.
Texas Original CEO Morris Denton told the Current that his company, which already operates dispensaries in Houston and its headquarters city of Austin, is in talks to lease a facility here. It also recently inked a lease for one in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and has another under negotiation there.
"We've identified three or four locations in San Antonio that we like, and we're in different stages of negotiations with each of those locations," Denton said.
Denton said he expects to open an Alamo City storefront serving approved patients by next fall, "if not sooner." He declined to reveal the sites currently under consideration.
Dispensary leases have been slow to materialize because the cannabis business is new in Texas and unfamiliar to landlords, according to Denton. While states are loosening cannabis laws, existing federal statutes require building owners to rethink conventional lease terms.
"It takes time to sort of educate landlords on why we can't have clauses in our lease that require us to adhere to all federal laws," Denton explained.
Currently, Texas Original serves San Antonio and other cities outside of Austin and Houston by making deliveries to designated patient drop-off points such as medical clinics.
Around 34,000 people are enrolled in Texas' medical cannabis program, according to state records. Even though state lawmakers widened the number of patients covered during the 2021 legislative session, the program remains one of the most restrictive in the nation.
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