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Final Paper: Maintaining a Medicinal Marijuana Clinic

Angel Simon Professor Luaver MGT 415: Group Behavior In Organizations April 16, 2012

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Our economy runs on small and large businesses, from restaurants to day cares to large corporations and everything in between, there is some sort of business out there to cater to everyones need. When parents need their children taken care of while they are at work, they can drop off their children at a day care or when someone is sick they can go to a doctors office and see the doctor. A new business that is emerging throughout the United States is medicinal marijuana collectives, more commonly known as medicinal marijuana clinics. Marijuana has been a controversial issue in the United States for many decades and the legalization of medicinal marijuana has been a muchheated debate as well. However despite the controversies, medicinal marijuana clinics, much like a pharmacy is still a business that provides a purpose and has the same ups and downs such as group conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, etc just like any other businesses and the clinic that I have consulted with in hopes of improving group productivity is BCC of San Diego. When people think of medicinal marijuana, there is a negative connotation associated with marijuana. Though there is merit in this belief, the evolution of marijuana has changed to provide medicinal purposes. According to www.chrisconrad.com, in 1996, California was one of the first states to legalize medicinal marijuana passing Proposition 215 for seriously ill patients. The proposition ensures that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medicinal purposes where medical use is deem appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who had determined that the persons health would benefit from the use of marijuana in treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain and other illness. Since 1996, 16 states have legalized medicinal marijuana such as Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey, Vermont and Washington. As a result medicinal marijuana collectives have

Simon begun to open throughout the country to serve adults with ailing needs. Medicinal marijuana clinics are ran much like a pharmacy in that they comply with safety, legal compliance and a high standard of care for patients are of the utmost importance. Because collectives are still so controversial there are numerous other rules that a clinic must abide by to stay within the rules and regulations of their practiced business. Before even opening a clinic a business owner must contact the local county and sheriffs office and inform of their intentions and owners must demonstrate maintaining legal compliance. Also a dispensary cannot operate within 1000 feet of a school or areas on business parks associated with a high volume of passing children. Clinics should also maintain business hours comparable to stores and businesses in the immediate area and should not operate after dark nor allow patients to enter the premises before or after the business hours. Clinics should also have high security systems that include day and night security cameras, security cameras with back up generators and steel or solid doors with deadbolts as well as bulletproof glass. There are several other compliances that an owner must adhere to depending on the state. Most people view medicinal marijuana clinics as a stoners hang out however after further research and interviews with staff, owners, vendors etc, medicinal marijuana clinics have the same ups and downs just like any other businesses. At the same time in order to change public perception of medicinal marijuana clinics, clinics must operate differently to be viewed as an alternative approach holistic approach to medicine. According to Danny Sanchez, owner of a BCC, medicinal marijuana clinics located in various areas of San Diego, customer service is an important aspect of reaching the monthly sales quota and essentially keeping the

Simon business open. In the past, people have been hesitant with using alternative

medication such as medicinal marijuana, however with the holistic wellness approach becoming a new trend in healthy living, medicinal marijuana has become an emerging alternative form of medication, so providing excellent customer service with knowledgeable consultation as well as empathy for the patient. According to Trish Regan, author of Joint Ventures: Inside Americas Most Legal Marijuana Industry, there are roughly around 700,000 consumers able to purchase medicinal marijuana, (p. 17) therefore target market for medicinal marijuana clinics is a lower target market of consumers than regular business since they are only allowed to serve patients with medicinal marijuana cards prescribed by a physician so it is imperative to not only keep their clients but attract new clients as well. Since the rules and regulations that must be followed are stricter than normal businesses the staff is the backbone in keeping the clinic open for business. The BCC mission statement aims to take great measure in providing the best experience for their clients and that means having a knowledgeable staff. Danny Sanchez from BCC explains the importance of having a knowledgeable staff claiming that, It is important that your staff is knowledgeable in the rules and regulations, since there are always undercover cops trying to bust the operation in hopes of finding illegal activity occurring. Also the staff must be knowledgeable on the different types of marijuana that is being sold since each indica or sativa strands have different purposes. Unfortunately that is not always the case within the organization and since opening there have been problems in the ever constant changing staff. According to Sanchez, an initial problem that occurred when BCC first opened was that the staff viewed their position in the company just as a minimum wage job that was only a

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paycheck. Also the pressure of making sure to stay within the regulations of selling marijuana and ever changing state laws made the minimum wage job unworthy of staying at and as a result there was never a strong group cohesion and many group conflicts became prevalent in the organization. One problem that was noticed was that there was a divide between the original staff and the newly hired staff. The original staff has become complacent in their positions and feels as though they do not need to put in any of the effort in maintaining the clinic since there are new staff members for that. After spending time at the clinics and watching the interaction between staff and management, I noticed that since management had longer working and personal relationships with the original staff members, there were more leniencies given to them. They did not do the everyday work that must be done such as maintaining cleanliness of the facility, displays, keeping inventory of the stock as well as maintain and updating personal client files. Needless to say the leniency of the managers and owners is becoming a problem to the organization due to the fact that the essential everyday duties that must be done is not getting taken care of. A way to settle this problem would be to create a log of daily task that need to be done each day according to opening and closing shifts. The staff member assigned to the according shifts will be responsible for taking care of the mentioned duties. By creating a daily task log, the entire staff, no matter how long they have been there will be responsible for the maintenance of the clinic. Another problem that is pressing to the staff is the lack of leadership that they feel like the clinic is missing. The time spent in various clinics it was clear that the owners did not spend enough time on site to deal with the problems that occur

Simon within the staff. Staff complains that there has not been much of a structure in the

organization leaving them sometimes to feel as though they are running around with their heads cut off. The absence of the owners can lead to numerous problems, however one employee remarks that this is slowly becoming a path where employees are becoming unknowledgeable about their products. We get different strains of marijuana from different growers and each kind has different effects on the body, sometimes its hard to keep up with what does what and as a result the experience that clients get is compromised because lack of knowledge from the staff. A simple way to solve this problem would be to have the owners more present in the facility. Since they are the ones who invested money in this business it should be obvious that staying the facility and making sure the business is running should be their number one priority. If the owners are present they should also be engaging their employees and encouraging of them to be the best staff members possible to be the embodiment of their mission statement. Perhaps the best way to not only encourage group cohesion as well enforce structure would be to keep lines of communication open amongst the staff, managers and owners. Weekly staff meetings can help encourage one another to bring up issues or concerns that staff may have and bring them up to the managers and owners in a non-threatening platform to not only better cohesion but better the clinic as well. A good technique would be to have incentives to come up with ways on how to give clients a better experience in the clinic. For example in the staff meeting, one concern A client, who was in a car accident earlier that year and as a result suffered from backache and whiplash, unfortunately back pain is muscle related and whiplash is nerve related so they were not getting relief for both of their problems. After a collective

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group brainstorm, the clinic came up with creating blends in the marijuana. Blends can be created to provide patient with functionality during the day for pain management and sleep at night. Because of the group meeting resulting in this idea it not only invigorates employees to become more creative in their customer service but also helps create a sense of pride in the workplace. Another way to help keep the lines of communication open is by making time to schedule monthly training with the staff. The mission state for BCC has collectively changed over time since in the beginning people did not really know how to run a medicinal marijuana clinic, however the heart and soul of the business has become focused on the clients and the experience they deserve. A way to maintain this experience is by educating the staff on the different types of marijuana strains. Just like pharmaceutical companies creating new types of drugs, growers are creating new types of marijuana also. In the past there was only indica and sativa, now there are indoor strains, feminized strains, autoflower strains etc. (Regan, 2011, p. 21) By being knowledgeable on the new strains that are being offered to the clients, they staff can maintain the experience that the clients deserved every time they walk into a clinic. Though it would be ideal to have everyone be trained at the same time, sometimes scheduling training does not always occur. A good way to resolve this problem would be to create training materials for each new strand that will become available to clients. Each staff member would then be accountable for making sure they have been trained on the new products that are becoming available. A guidebook to different strains should also be created as a reference so staff can look back and refer to it when they have questions. Last recommendation but certainly not least would be to enforce staff building

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events such as community service to encourage cohesiveness with the organization. Staff building outings can be a good way for people to get to know one another on a personal basis outside of the workplace not only that but it can also change the clinic is viewed by the community. Not only does it help create personal bonds between the staff members that bond can translate to the work place as well making it a stronger group. Perhaps community service such as supporting local produce growers or local beach clean ups can be a good way to change public perception of medicinal marijuana clinics that can not only help in bettering the community but become fun events for staff to look forward to as well. In conclusion though the public may have a certain perception of medicinal marijuana clinics however they essentially are just like any other business, they too have problems that any business would have. It is important to have a structure in place for all of the employees to follow, regardless of however long they have been there. Structure is also important to help keep the business going and making sure all of the daily duties get taken care of. Also perhaps the most important factor in sustaining a business and maintaining group cohesiveness would be to keep lines of communication open. Communication is crucial in any business because it is the only way to resolve problems, keep up with new ideas and to be a business that stands out in an ever-evolving world.

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Works Cited T. Regan p. 17, 21 http://www.chrisconrad.com/expert.witness/Prop215.html 2011 Joint Ventures: Inside America's Almost Legal Marijuana Industry