Trulieve bringing medical edibles to Florida

The leading medical cannabis distributor in the Sunshine State is putting some new product on its shelves.

Trulieve, which operates nearly two dozen Florida dispensaries from the Panhandle to South Florida, announced Wednesday that it has signed a deal with a Colorado-based company to provide edible cannabis-infused goods, disposable vaporizer cartridges, tinctures, and a varied collection of topicals to Florida medical marijuana patients.

The new lineup will come from Binske which, like Trulieve, is a young company that has seen explosive growth since it opened up shop two years ago.

“When we look for partnerships, our focus is on bringing products to patients that provide relief in a safe, reliable manner. Binske shares Trulieve’s dedication to the patients first, focused on creating products that are high quality, consistent, and effective,” said Kim Rivers, Trulieve CEO. “Their products will be an excellent fit for patients in Florida.”

“Binske” means “an experience of perfection.” The company’s tagline: “The highest standards didn’t exist, so we created them.”

The company appears to be living up to that motto as their products have received numerous accolades, including “Best Overall Company” in Colorado and “Best Concentrates” in Nevada by Leafly in 2018. High Times, the foremost publication on cannabis, described Binske as the “first truly gourmet, culinary-centric cannabis brand.”

Binske CEO Jacob Pasternack said that “most cannabis companies sell what we refer to as ‘the commoditized high.’ Binske on the other hand, provides an experience. We are excited to bring that experience to every Floridian.

“Trulieve has distinguished itself in Florida as a result of its superior forward thinking relating to production capacity and scalability. This deal is a union of the largest medical cannabis company in Florida and the highest end brand that exists in the cannabis industry,” Pasternack continued. “The market in Florida is on the cusp of exploding; we are here to help light the fuse.”

Trulieve customers will have to wait for regulatory approvals before they can try out Binske’s edibles for themselves, the company said in press release.

The licensing deal will grant Trulieve the exclusive right to sell Binske edibles in the Sunshine State. The partnership will also see Trulieve sell the first third-party products since it set up shop in Florida — the business is vertically integrated, meaning the company controls every step of the process, from growing cannabis to selling it to the end consumer.

The partnership comes on the heels of Trulieve acquiring three other medical marijuana companies, including one in Canada, which allowed the company to go public on the Canadian Securities Exchange.

Smoking cannabis isn’t currently allowed under Florida law, so Trulieve and other medical marijuana companies operating in Florida offer patients products such as vaporizer pens, nasal sprays, tinctures and topical creams.

Trulieve was the first medical marijuana provider to get rolling in the Sunshine State following Florida voters’ supermajority approval of Amendment 2 in 2016. The state’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use recently announced the registry had surpassed 162,000 registered medical marijuana patients with an active ID card