Osage Creek Dispensary opening soon

Osage Creek Dispensary, expected to open at the intersection of US 62 and Planer Hill in Eureka Springs in early October, will bring products to a medical marijuana desert, a part of the state – Carroll, Madison, Boone and Newton counties – where previously patients have had to travel one to two hours to visit a dispensary. It is expected create a significant economic boost through sales taxes and employment.

“It has been a long trip for many patients in our area to drive to Bentonville or Mountain Home,” Chief Operating Officer Jay Trulove said. Osage Creek Dispensary and Osage Creek Cultivation are located near Berryville, one of eight licensed marijuana grow facilities in the state. “We believe this dispensary in Eureka Springs will bridge that gap. We feel there is a great need for one here.”

The Trulove family purchased the Best Western Eureka Inn and renamed it Osage Creek Lodge. The dispensary will be in half of the lobby, with public waiting areas for customers in former conference rooms.

A license for an existing dispensary in Fayetteville was purchased to transfer the facility to Eureka Springs. Some people questioned moving from a town of 87,000 to a town with a population of about 2,400.

“We think it is a good move for the patients and for our business,” Trulove said. “I was born in Harrison, and we spent the past forty years in Berryville. This is where we’re from. We are hiring all locals. We think Eureka is a good fit, and hopefully the dispensary will be able to have a big impact.

“Employees will be starting at a minimum of $15 per hour, and these will be year-‘round jobs. We are going to start with 18 people employed just in the dispensary. When in full force, we think we will end up with about 45 employees just in the dispensary. We will also be hiring five people to work in a café with espresso drinks and gourmet food, and a mercantile which will sell local art and crafts, including those depicting cannabis.”

They expect to be done with construction in early October and open in mid-October after they pass inspection by regulators with Alcohol and Beverage Control. “Mid-October is very doable, if not closer to the first,” Trulove said. “This is not just for Eureka Springs, but the whole surrounding rural area. The Mountain Home dispensary is typically the third largest seller in the state. I think we are in the same situation in that both areas have a lot of older folks who are retired and may benefit from this medicine. We think businesswise it is going to be a win for everybody.”

In 2006, Eureka Springs was the first city in Arkansas to pass a voter referendum to make the enforcement of the marijuana laws a low priority for the city’s police department. Eureka, known as a place “where the misfits fit,” is considered one of the most liberal cities in the state.

“One reason to come to Eureka was to have local support,” Trulove said. “We considered near Harrison, but there might have been some opposition. Really, Eureka Springs was an easy decision. We think it is best for everyone. If it is good for Eureka, it is good for us. We will have something going on in the winter. We intend to keep the hotel open year-‘round.”

The Truloves were late converts to the idea of medical marijuana.

“Our family was dead set against medical marijuana,” Trulove said. “We had some people open our eyes. We were shocked by how many good friends of ours were using it for pain management and other health issues. A lot of people need this for pain or PTSD. I came to see there was tremendous support for medical marijuana in this state. Since we started the cultivation facility, I have had countless people to come up and thank me. I’m more excited about this than anything I have done in my life.”

Medical marijuana was legalized by voters in 2016. When the Truloves won a cultivation license, they hired MJ Freeway in Denver for consulting. Gustin Tubbs was team leader of that effort. The Truloves convinced Tubbs, who has worked in the industry 11 years including managing dispensaries years in Colorado and Nevada, to move to Arkansas to become Vice President of Business Development for Osage Creek Dispensary.

Tubbs said he is excited about the team they have hired to work at the dispensary. In addition to hourly wages, employees get benefits like healthcare.

“I’m really thrilled with the first round of hires, and especially excited that I get to train them personally,” Tubbs said. “Each new employee takes a two-week training course where they learn the fundamentals of cannabis theory. Part of that training is understanding how to address a wide range of patient needs, including the needs of different age demographics.”

Some local seniors visiting other dispensaries have reported feeling uncertain and sometimes bewildered by the wide range of medical marijuana options available. The clerks, known as budtenders, are almost all under the age of 30, and some can be impatient with lots of questions and indecisiveness. One dispensary representative said they don’t have any older budtenders because of trouble standing on their feet for eight hours a day.

Tubbs said because they are hiring locally, and Eureka has an older demographic than many towns, they will have a wide range of ages of employees working for them. They are starting out being open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Especially when they open for 12 hours a day, it would be a benefit to have part-time people who may only want to work a few hours a day.

Bearing in mind that many of the patients are older and may have mobility challenges and other health issues, Tubbs said they have designed comfortable waiting rooms. It will also be possible to have consultations before heading to the checkout lane.

The hotel with 86 rooms is the second largest in town with 30 employees.

“We guaranteed everyone’s jobs,” Trulove said. “We are not cutting back. We are planning on expanding. It is the people that we have working for us that will make it successful. We will maintain the standards that have always been in place at that hotel—one of the largest properties in town. We will maintain respect for guests and for patients. The hotel will continue to be non-smoking in the rooms and other areas like the pool. People won’t be allowed to buy at the dispensary and consume it on the property.”

The new general manager of the hotel is Skylar Casada, who most recently worked as manager of the Lake Leatherwood campground and previously worked at Wanderoo Lodge and Gravel Bar. She is one of the first female general managers of a large property in Eureka Springs.

“Skylar fits right in with the profile we want,” Trulove said. “Be yourself and have fun. You don’t have to fit a mold to work for us.”