The most ubiquitous of marijuana edibles is, of course, the pot brownie, but for patients visiting a nonprofit dispensary in Quincy, there’s now a more savory option: pot pizza.
Ermont Inc. on Ricciuti Drive in Quincy unveiled this week the newest edition to its edible menu. The 6-inch cheese pizza comes frozen and infused with 125 milligrams of the dispensary’s own THC distillate.
“We are pleased to offer a new, more appetizing way for our patients to alleviate pain and discomfort,” said Jack Hudson, CEO and founder of Ermont, in a statement. “The combination of a food as popular as pizza with the medicinal benefits of marijuana represents an important milestone in the evolution of our high-quality marijuana-infused products menu.”
Ermont’s edibles team, composed of operations manager Seth Yaffe, cannabinoid infusion consultant Adam Gendreau and chef Keith Brooks, developed the pie. It’s not the first unexpected edible Ermont has created, either.
The dispensary opened in October 2016, and along with fruit chews, muffins and lozenges, it also offers hot fudge, peanut butter and pub cheese all laced with THC. Around the Super Bowl, the menu featured marijuana mac and cheese, queso dip and even hot sauce.
Yaffe said that the team has always approached edibles differently and with their patients in mind.
“We wanted [our edibles] to be something that, first, took our patients’ minds off of medicine. We have patients taking tremendous amounts of pills,” he said.
The idea of providing savory edible options helps marijuana-as-medicine be “better able to fit a normal day-to-day experience,” he added. Most edibles are sweet, but some patients don’t want to be eating candy or brownies all day long to get their doses.
There are a few medicinal benefits to eating a pot pizza rather than smoking a joint, as well. Yaffe said that edibles provide a longer-lasting effect of the THC, to alleviate pain and discomfort for a longer period of time.
The personal pizza is also one of the first edibles designed as a full meal rather than a small snack or lozenge.
“For a lot of patients, eating in general is really tough — if they’re coming off of chemo or dealing with nausea,” Yaffe said. “To have a couple of bites of something and get that feeling of relief from the nausea, having an appetite, then they have something that they can continue to eat — that’s why we thought the pizza was a good idea.”
To Ermont, it’s about truly integrating this medication seamlessly into people’s lives. Of course, the pizza tastes good too, Yaffe said. “Not only are patients excited to have a medicated pizza, but most say it’s better than any frozen pizza they’ve had,” he said. He added that he has tried it and agrees.
The pie is a South Shore-style “bar pizza,” with thin, crispy crust, well-done cheese and tomato sauce. It’s prepared like any other frozen pizza, but Yaffe noted that it’s in a childproof and tamperproof container, clearly marked as medicine, so as not to be confused with other goods in a family freezer.
