Even though Oklahoma voters only legalized medical marijuana in June 2018, the state has become one of the fastest-growing state-legal cannabis industries in the country. With a sea of dispensaries in Oklahoma, the Vertica dispensary brand has set itself apart in a few important ways.
We reached out to the team at Vertica to find out more about what makes them unique. Here are their answers to our questions.
How long have you been in business? How long have you been using Hypur?
Opened our Norman location in May 2019, OKC location July 2019. Stillwater opens in 3 weeks and Edmond coming before the end of the year. We started using Hypur for cannabis payments in June 2019
Tell us about your business. What makes your dispensary/dispensaries unique?
What makes Vertica different is that we had the patient in mind when we created our retail stores. We wanted a place where everyone would be comfortable whether they are new to cannabis or veterans of using the plant.
When you walk in the store, you will immediately notice it’s different. The elegant décor speaks directly to the quality of the products we carry. We wanted to create a very high-end dispensary that also felt like a comfortable place to buy cannabis and I believe we have done exactly that.
Our budtenders are the best at what they do. They are constantly training and learning everything they can about this ever-changing industry. Our patient reviews speak for themselves. We also are less than a month away from starting Vertica Academy.
Our flagship store in OKC is going to be a place where patients can come and learn about the plant and how it can help them. We plan on having events/classes several times a month ranging from Chronic Pain Treatment to Living with Depression/Anxiety to the Medicinal Use of Terpenes to name a few. The educational boundaries are limitless.
What makes us different at the farm is our desire to put care for Mother Earth and our patients first and foremost. Every nutrient we use in our feeding program is organic. We don’t say we are organic just because we grow in coco or dirt (like many folks will claim).
We use only organic nutrients in our fertilizer mixes; we clean our facility with OMRI listed cleaners; all of our drip irrigation lines are cleaned out using OMRI listed products as well.
In addition to opting exclusively for organic nutrients, our nutrients are powder-based. Liquid nutrients are mostly water and cost more money and fossil fuels to ship to and from, whereas the powder-based nutrients have a smaller carbon footprint.
Being in a greenhouse, we are able to drastically reduce our carbon footprint as we only need to use grow lights when the sun is insufficient. As opposed to indoor grows, which use artificial lighting for 12 hours every day in flower and 18-24 hours every day in vegetative mode, we will only use lighting when needed.
We have also installed a control system that calculates the incoming solar radiation so we know exactly how much light our plants have received on any given day. So, if it was sunny out all day, and our plants receive all the light they can use, our system will not turn on the lights even if the timeframe for that light was less than 12 hours.
Most grows, even greenhouse grows, will make sure that their plants get 12 hours of light in flowering, if the sun provided enough light in 10 hours that day, there is no need to add another 2 hours of artificial lighting. Vertica is equipped to implement the energy and carbon savings.
We have also installed a state-of-the-art irrigation system which is capable of watering only when the plants (or microbes, in our case) need more water. We do not need to over water our plants just to make sure they are wet, we know exactly how much water is in our plants and are able to derive water savings, and therefore fertilizer savings, as a result.
Everything we do at the farm we do with the intention of minimizing our impact on the world around us and maximizing the medical efficacy of our product.
What do you think of the local cannabis industry?
What is happening in the Oklahoma Cannabis industry is a true testament to what local business and local entrepreneurship can do to an economy. From the local real estate boom to all of the thousands of jobs created, it’s the most exciting thing to happen to Oklahoma in a very long time. Not to mention the most important thing, that people can now treat their illnesses with the plant instead of pills and thousands of people are finding relief from pain through the use of cannabis.
How has Hypur helped your business?
We don’t have a cash machine at Vertica so Hypur makes it easy for customers to come in, download the app and purchase products without having to carry around a lot of cash. It’s a safer and much more convenient alternative.
What is the most surprising thing you’ve learned since becoming a part of the Oklahoma cannabis community?
The most surprising thing I have learned is who our actual customers are. They are people from all walks of life. It’s your mailman, your yoga teacher, your grandmother. I think initially I thought our customer would be a young ‘stoner’ type and we love those customers, but the surprising thing is learning what cannabis can do for the quality of people’s lives. Education is the most important thing in this industry and Vertica strives to be the leader in educating our patients.
Where can people find you?
- 1729 W Main in Norman
- 2925 Lakeside Drive in OKC
- 801 S Perkins in Stillwater (coming soon)
-  2901 S Broadway in Edmond (coming soon)
Online at: www.verticadispensary.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram.
