Night Owls Rejoice — This Valley Dispensary Will Sell Pot Until Midnight

Brace yourself for the midnight munchies.

One Phoenix-area dispensary will stay open until 12 a.m. starting on Friday, allowing for twilight toke sessions and dabs in the dark.

Guadalupe-based The Mint Dispensary LLC is preparing to make history with its flagship store across from Arizona Mills at the corner of Priest Drive and Baseline Road.

Never before in Arizona have budtenders served customers their favorite cannabis products at such a late hour.

“On a nightly basis, we have folks running in, trying to get in to beat the 10 p.m. closing time,” co-founder Raul Molina told Phoenix New Times.

The extended hours help both medical marijuana patients soliciting a visit from the sandman and also university students looking to chill out after a night on Mill Avenue.

And after recreational marijuana was legalized for adults in Arizona just over a year ago, requests for late-night pot goodies tripled, Molina said.

The Mint CEO Eivan Shahara wants to see his three Valley dispensaries fall in line with the local pharmacies that serve many of the same patients, he said.

The new hours will “provide medicine to patients and products to customers when they need it the most,” Shahara said.

That’s good news for medical marijuana patients in metro Phoenix like Michael C., who asked us not to publish his last name for privacy reasons.

Michael, who works in delivery, is reminded of his time living in Las Vegas, where he had carte blanche access to weed at the city’s many 24-hour dispensaries.

“I usually finish my deliveries late at night,” he said. “I’ve never seen anyone open that late here.”

The Arizona company has stores in Guadalupe, Mesa, and North Phoenix. It also operates two stores in Michigan and is preparing to open doors in Missouri and Massachusetts.

Selling marijuana doesn’t have the same time restraints as alcohol, which can’t be sold between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. in Arizona. But state municipalities have levied their own constraints on the clock to close down cannabis joints by 10 p.m.

Last month, the Guadalupe City Council voted to amend its medical marijuana ordinance to allow dispensaries to remain open from 8 a.m. until midnight.

It’s also “part of the plan” to capitalize on the new hours to compete with bars, Molina said. Near the Guadalupe store in South Tempe, there are many bars serving as competition.

“We believe that cannabis is a much more responsible and safe way to enjoy your social outings,” Molina said.

The company has blazed new trails since 2018, when it opened The Mint Café, a restaurant that cooks up cannabis-infused foods. That’s Michael’s favorite way to consume cannabis.

“I’m going for the late-night munchies,” he said. “I usually get a pizza or wings.”

The Guadalupe store has featured a drive-thru queue for food and flower since the coronavirus pandemic ravaged Arizona.

It also sold a gigantic, six-pound marijuana donut in 2021.

“We love pushing boundaries,” Molina said.

The Mint is the largest of a handful of emergent cannabis businesses in the Grand Canyon State by retail space.

The Guadalupe store has 12,000 square feet of retail space, far surpassing the 5,000-square-foot statutory limit in Phoenix, Mesa, and most other Valley localities.

While other industry titans like Wakefield, Massachusetts-based Curaleaf have made permanent homes in the Valley of the Sun, The Mint invested $3.5 million to plant its roots in Arizona and looks to expand eastward.

The company was profitable from the jump, with nearly $20 million in sales in its first year. By 2020, revenue had more than doubled.

Now, the company expects to get even busier, Molina said.

He’s planning to ask the Mesa and Phoenix City Councils to amend their marijuana ordinances, too.

The new hours coincide with the company’s five-year anniversary. On Friday, adults over 21 can enjoy free tacos, giveaways, and deals from 2 p.m. until midnight, plus a live DJ starting at 4:20 p.m., at the flagship store.