As Bay Area officials on Tuesday scrambled to try and interpret the shelter-in-place order enacted the day prior, cannabis dispensaries and licensed cannabis companies across all seven counties appeared to be floating in an area of limbo.
The newly released order provided a list of essential businesses that could remain open, including grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and medical facilities, but left room for interpretation when it came to certain industries, including California’ cannabis sector — generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the state each year.
While cannabis in itself may not seem like an essential supply during a lockdown for some, other residents rely on medical marijuana for treatment and pain relief.
In San Jose, dispensaries continued to serve customers and long lines full of residents who came out of isolation to fetch supplies formed around the buildings.
So long as they practice social distancing measures, San Jose spokesperson Rosario Neaves said that the city is considering dispensaries businesses that provide essential healthcare needs and therefore are exempt from the latest order.
“In our case in the city, we’re considering medical cannabis a healthcare operation, as long as they comply with the social distancing requirements,” Neaves said.
But not every agency across the region — or even within the same county — appeared to be interpreting the language of the new order in the same manner.
Although San Jose dispensaries were serving both recreational and medical customers on Tuesday, Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams said in a statement that dispensaries could only be deemed as essential businesses that could stay open during the order “for medical purposes, not recreational.” Williams could not be reached to further elaborate on that stance.
Officials in Santa Cruz County announced that they allowing cannabis dispensaries to continue operating via delivery or pickup only but customers are prohibited from gathering in a store, according to an FAQ page on the county’s website.
In San Francisco, however, cannabis companies were told they needed to temporarily shut down their businesses Tuesday morning, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Contra Costa and Alameda counties did not immediately respond to comment.
Eaze, a San Francisco-based cannabis delivery service, said on Twitter Tuesday morning that it would comply with san Francisco’s order and shut down delivery within the city but still continue to service customers in the surrounding Bay Area.
San Jose officials said Tuesday that they had no plans to follow in the footsteps of the Bay Area’s second-largest city.
Outside San Jose dispensary Haze, resident Robert Doering was among ten or so people waiting for his turn inside.
Doering, a service technician for a window company, said he needed to pick up CBD for an arthritic knee that he injured while working a few years ago.
“Some people just use it to get high,” he said. “But for other people, it’s a medical use for pain.”
As for the line to get inside Haze Tuesday morning, customer Doering didn’t seem to mind. “It’s way longer at the grocery store. Now those lines are really, really long,” he said.
A few blocks away, San Jose dispensaries Caliva and CA Collective and Airline Supply Company in Santa Clara were all fielding customers as well.
At Caliva, more than 20 people — some donning face masks and gloves — were lined up Tuesday morning with about two to three feet of space between one another; the county’s social distancing requirement calls for six feet.
As the day went on, an employee at Caliva routinely came outside to call on customers to spread out. “It’s critical for us to remain open,” he said.
With a lack of clarity from officials, some Bay Area dispensaries were making significant alterations on their own to try and oblige while also maintaining some of their operations.
At Delta Dispensary in Antioch, the business said it received permission from The Bureau of Cannabis Control to continue serving customers strictly on a drive-thru basis.
On Tuesday afternoon, cars were lined up around the parking lot with people waiting to place orders and pick up supplies. The dispensary’s storefront was closed and customers were asked to remain in their cars as employees checked their identification cards, fetched their requested items and took their payment.
“It adds a little bit of difficulty and frustration on the consumer side, as well as the business side, but at the end of the day, this is the safest possible way for people to continue safe access in my opinion,” said Anthony Rangel, compliance officer at the dispensary.