Arizona Dispensary Is Making Hand Sanitizer for its Employees and Patients

A month ago, Americans never really heard of breweries and vodka distilleries making cleaning or sanitizing products. But with the coronavirus (COVID-19) sweeping through the country many businesses nationwide are switching gears to produce cleaning and sanitizing products that are in such high demand and short supply.

The Arizona medical marijuana dispensary Nature’s Medicines has decided to join the brigade. Using the equipment in their laboratory, which is usually dedicated to making cannabis oils and distillates, they successfully produced 3,000 units of gel sanitizer and are in the process of producing another 5,000 units.

“All of us at Nature’s Medicines wanted to make sure our employees were as safe as possible,” CEO Jigar Patel told AZmarijuana.com. “Equally important was providing our patients the highest level of protection.”

The dispensary put CDC safety procedures into effect as soon as they knew that COVID-19 was spreading.  But they quickly realized that hand sanitizers were almost impossible to find, so they decided to start making sanitizer.

“At that point our communal light bulb turned on. We decided to make it ourselves,” said Ernesto Becerril, Chief Production Officer. “The staff wasted no time getting their equipment and necessary ingredients lined up in their lab. We followed the FDA recipe adding a light touch of mint, and celebrated when the first batch met our standards.”

Nature’s Medicines is now supplying their employees with their homemade sanitizer and is also giving its patients a free sanitizer with their purchase (while supplies last).

“As far as we know we’re one of the few dispensaries in the country to make our own hand sanitizer,” said Mark Steinmetz, CEO & Founder. “Knowing that we’re doing what we can to protect our employees, our patients and our community is such a gratifying feeling.”