Medicinal cannabis retailer Surterra rolls into Key West
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Anyone walking into Key West’s first legal medicinal cannabis retailer expecting to find Bob Marley tunes playing, and the smell of incense a-wafting behind a display case full of oversized bongs, is bound to be disappointed.
That’s because Surterra Wellness – ironically located in the former Florida Department of Law Enforcement office in Habana Plaza – is not on a mission to turn hipster potheads on to a kind quarter of sticky buds.
Instead, the Atlanta-based company aims to be “empowering individuals to take control of their own well-being and potential,” according to Surterra’s Chief Marketing Officer Levent Hamdemir.
“Right down to their dietary choices and exercise regimens,” he said, “we think of our retail locations as learning centers, not stores, and that we’re actually ‘moving in’ to the communities where we have a presence.”
At the Key West location’s grand opening on April 11, dozens of curious locals showed up to chat with the staff while munching on fruit and (un-doctored) blueberry muffins, receive massages, and henna tattoos; and yes, fill their prescriptions for the cannabis oils that have helped so many to live with painful and debilitating medical conditions.
“This place is a godsend for me,” said Jose Davila, a mixed martial arts enthusiast who recently ended up with a broken orbital lobe and fractured wrist from time spent in the ring. “Knowing that Surterra was opening here is actually about 25 percent of the reason we moved down to Key West.”
Since he can’t afford to miss work at the catering company employing him, Davila needed to manage his pain, as well as the sleep issues that have haunted him as a result – without resorting to the highly addictive opioid painkillers that have so ravaged the country in recent years.
“Before I discovered Surterra, I found myself buying marijuana on the street from some pretty shady characters,” he said. “And I never really knew what I was getting until I got home. This place is a pharmacy, and it’s no different from me walking into a CVS. It’s just a much better experience, and it’s given me a lot more freedom to carry on with my life.”
There are no posters of pot plants, or other recreational drug culture trappings at the dispensary.
Clients who have received prescriptions from one of the 16 doctors in town authorized to write them present their scrips at a desk in the rear, and are either given just what the doctor ordered, or, depending on the doctor’s instructions, decide for themselves which products best suit their needs. The refined cannabis can be utilized in epidermal patches, gels, or vape form, and are specially designed for specific ailments, such as Parkinson’s disease, glaucoma, sleep disorders, and more.
The average cost for a two- or four-week supply of these products is around $40 to $75.
Surterra will even deliver to homebound patients, or even for people who may be out of town but will need the products upon their arrival back in Key West. Even tourists can take advantage of the dispensary – as long as they have a valid prescription from a local doctor.
The industry has come a long way since Florida voters approved medicinal marijuana by way of a ballot initiative in the 2016 general election. Two more such dispensaries, managed by different owners, will be opening in town soon.
It’s a far cry from the mid-1990s when Zvi Baranoff’s unsanctioned Key West cannabis buyers’ club was raided and shut down by local police, despite the organization’s strict adherence to providing the drug only to people whom doctors had recommended its use. Baranoff himself was arrested and charged with possession of felony amounts of marijuana, with intent to distribute. Ultimately he received probation and sentence adjudication withheld.
These days he calls Oregon home.
“Wow, and wow again,” said Baranoff, upon being informed about Surterra and the other forthcoming Key West dispensaries. “We have all suffered from decades of pointless prohibition. Now, with the passage of the Farm Bill that recognizes hemp, we are seeing the beginnings of the utilization of this most beneficial plant in ways that we were telling people about in the 1980s. Medical access – although still limited – is now available almost nationally.”
For more information about Surterra Wellness visit https://www.surterra.
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