Medallion Wellness team members host or participate in many community appreciation and cleanup days.

As the legal market for retail cannabis businesses expands across the Central Valley, Medallion Wellness has created an inclusive and welcoming retail experience for consumers as well as significant benefits for communities at large. They’ve aimed to make the City of Fresno their new home with a recent permit application for a brick and mortar storefront along Blackstone Avenue.

Medallion Wellness, founded in 2016 as a non-profit medical cannabis dispensary, now serves customers from storefronts in three cities throughout the San Joaquin Valley, as well as customers across the valley through its delivery service which currently reaches the greater Fresno area.

 

 

Zach Drivon, General Counsel for Medallion Wellness, confirmed they already deliver to 1,300 customers in the Fresno area and now hope to bring the benefits of a brick and mortar store location to the community.

“We take pride in being a San Joaquin Valley based company. We benefit from years of experience and a local touch that can be felt by our employees and customers, as well as the communities we call home,” said Michael O’Leary, CEO of Medallion Wellness.

Drivon said Medallion’s existing operations have already worked to dispel misconceptions that dispensaries create a nuisance or encourage crime in areas where they operate. “By partnering with local law enforcement, as well as investing in sophisticated security infrastructure and highly trained personnel, our stores have actually contributed to the revitalization of certain commercial corridors by making them safer for the community.

 

 

According to 2018 and 2019 research conducted in Colorado and California, the presence of dispensaries did not increase crime rates, finding in Denver a 19% decrease in crime rates compared to average. Similar studies also showed dispensaries corresponded with decreased opioid abuse in their communities.

In addition to the economic benefits and direct neighborhood improvements we provide, Medallion Wellness makes community involvement and philanthropy a priority in every community where operations are maintained, Drivon said. In jurisdictions administering public benefits through Development Agreements with the Company, Medallion has advocated to ensure organizations serving those in need can share in these opportunities.

These organizations include John F Kennedy School in Modesto, which serves handicapped and severely handicapped students, local Chapters of the American GI Forum, Cal Fire, as well as the the Muscular Dystrophy association among many others.

 

 

They also host and participate directly in events like community appreciation days, donating hundreds of meals for families and backpacks to elementary students for the school year. They’ve also orchestrated several community cleanup events, most recently in Fresno’s downtown and in District 4 where they seek to operate partnering with ‘Keep Fresno Beautiful’.

During the COVID 19 Pandemic, they’ve sourced and donated significant amounts of PPE to Municipal Partners, including Calaveras County, Stanislaus County, City of Atwater, as well as to the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission (EOC), Amalgamated Transit Union 1027 (ATU 1027) and Fresno City Employees Association (FCEA).

O’Leary and Drivon said one of Medallion Wellness’ key differences from other dispensary operations in the area is their push to create a retail environment welcome to all.  

“We like to create a more inclusive environment where your grandma would feel comfortable coming into one of our stores and shopping alongside traditional cannabis consumers,” Drivon said. “It’s important to us because we’re working to promote cannabis as a compassionate alternative to some of the other substances that are present in our communities.”

They aim to serve cannabis enthusiasts, seniors, and veterans alike, along with the many new consumers in the space, O’Leary said.

While cities can deny or outlaw retail cannabis stores in their community, under California law a dispensary can deliver to anyone in the state as long as they are of age and not at a publicly owned or occupied location, Drivon said.

 

 

With that in mind, he said Medallion Wellness wants to expand into Fresno so consumers can enjoy Medallion’s friendly and immersive customer experience at a safe and secure location, and so residents can benefit from the approximately 50 living wage jobs with benefits Medallion will offer, as well as the from the positive economic and social impacts it will bring.

“As demand for our product, customer traffic and geographic reach through our delivery service grows, we’re looking to expand and become not only a member of the Fresno business community, but also a contributing member of the community at large,” Drivon said.