In 2019, during her final year of pharmacy school, Joelle D'Alencar's clinical rotation placed her in a medical cannabis facility. By the time it ended, she'd decided to open a dispensary of her own.
"I absolutely fell in love," she said. "I immediately felt like I was making a difference."
Fast-forward to 2026, and Loon Leaf in Blaine, Minnesota, serves both medical patients and recreational customers, and Joelle handles every medical consultation personally. She does them on the spot, which matters more than it might seem.
In Minnesota, new medical patients often wait for approval, and even then they can't buy until they've consulted with a pharmacist. At Loon Leaf, patients don't have to wait for an appointment. If Joelle is in the store, the consult happens right then; if she's off, she takes the consult by phone.
Her expertise isn't reserved for card holders, either. "I treat all of my customers the same," Joelle said. "If you're asking me for a recommendation for pain, sleep, anxiety, anything, I don't care if you have your med card or not. I am going to answer you the same way."
The real differences between the two customer groups are practical ones. Medical patients don't pay the cannabis taxes that apply to recreational sales, and medical patients have access to a separate set of products, such as specific gummies Joelle can recommend. However, any customer can ask about potential interactions with medications they already take.
That access is a big part of why people choose Loon Leaf. "A lot of customers come here because they know they have access to me," Joelle said, "and access to a pharmacist who is going to give them knowledge that is based off of what I have studied."
Opening a Minnesota Dispensary Through the Red Tape
Getting Loon Leaf off the ground meant working through the same obstacles that cannabis operators across the U.S. face. Because cannabis remains federally illegal, Joelle ran into restrictions on banking and real estate, along with a shortage of partners willing to work with a cannabis business at all.
On top of all that, Minnesota's regulatory framework added its own friction. "The state is still learning with us," she said, describing a rollout that has moved more slowly than in some other states.
In that environment, technology decisions carry real weight. A dispensary that sells to both medical and recreational customers needs a POS that handles different product sets, different tax treatment, and state reporting accurately every day. It also needs to work for a business that plans to grow beyond its founder.
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Easy to Learn. Easy to Use. Backed by Support That Listens.
Joelle met with four or five POS providers before making a decision. She went into those demos with a list of must-haves and compared each system against it. But beyond the feature list, she was looking for a platform her future employees could learn without her standing over them.
"I wanted to make sure it was a program I could easily teach," she said, "and a program that if I wasn't here, my employee could figure it out just based off of context clues and common sense. Cova met that."
Joelle said two key factors set Cova apart:
- Simplicity. Joelle had used other programs that left her asking how to complete basic tasks. Cova's workflows were straightforward from the start.
- Customer service. As a small business owner, she wanted a vendor that would respond quickly and take her feedback seriously.
"I know that if I have any issues or any questions or something I think should be tweaked, Cova answers right away. They listen," she said. "I'm not just a number. Cova really does value me as a client."
Clear Insights, Seamless Integrations, and Stress-Free Compliance
Simplicity is the word Joelle returns to most when she describes using Cova, and it shows up most clearly in reporting. She checks Loon Leaf's reports every day, and she values how readable they are.
"I love being able to constantly look at my reports," she said. "It doesn't look like hard, complicated data." With Cova's reporting and analytics, she can follow store performance without needing to decode the numbers first.
Integrations make up the rest of Loon Leaf's tech stack. Cova introduced Joelle to VFI Technology, which now powers the Loon Leaf website, and she says she is "forever grateful" for the introduction. Cova also integrates with Metrc, Minnesota's seed-to-sale tracking system.
State compliance reporting is where problems can do the most damage, and Joelle has found the Metrc connection reliable. Errors have been rare, and when they come up, she calls Cova rather than going to Metrc directly. "Usually it's a really quick fix," she said, "which takes a lot of stress off of me, because it can be really stressful when something is off with the state system." Having one point of contact for her POS, its integrations, and compliance reporting means fewer calls to make when something needs fixing.
Advice for Dispensary Owners: The Right POS Makes All the Difference
When asked how much the POS decision matters, Joelle didn't hesitate. "So important," she said. "Probably the most important decision you're going to make, honestly. If you have a complicated system or a system that you can't use to your advantage, it's going to make your life really hard."
Her broader advice for other retailers revolves around honesty and collaboration. She looks for honest partners, and she sees other dispensary owners as colleagues rather than competitors. "There's more than enough to go around," she said. "If we all work together, it's just going to be a better industry."
Looking Ahead for Loon Leaf
Joelle hopes to grow Loon Leaf into cultivation and manufacturing in the future, and customers already ask whether more locations are on the way. For now, she's focused on the store she has and the community around it. Regulars come in and trade updates on their lives with her; when she told customers she was expecting her first child, some of them cried. "It's more than just cannabis," she said. "They know when they come here, they're going to be welcomed with open arms."
Cova's job, as Joelle sees it, is to keep the technology working in the background so she can spend her time with those customers.
"You guys are awesome. I love Cova."
– Joelle D'Alencar, Loon Leaf
See How Cova POS Can Support Your Dispensary
Whether you serve medical patients, recreational customers, or both, Cova POS gives your team a system that's simple to learn, connects with partners like VFI Technology and Metrc, and comes with a support team that responds when you need it. Book a demo today to see it in action.