CANNABIS DECLARED ESSENTIAL BUSINESS

Cannabis Declared Essential

Patrick Ian Moore

The coronavirus has shut down most of the economy. There’s no more dine-in service at restaurants, it’s take out only. Movie theaters, live music shows, sporting events, nightclubs, bars and even churches have all been shut down. Walmart is one of the only places where you'll see very many people out and about, but even there the hours have been reduced and the entrances have been modified to only allow certain numbers of people inside at one time. Covid 19 has changed the way that we do almost everything, yet in the midst of it all, cannabis has been declared an essential business. According to NPR: “Thirty-three states across the nation allow for some form of sale and consumption of marijuana. And of those, more than 20 states have designated the cannabis industry as essential during the coronavirus outbreak.”

Most dispensaries have opted for alternatives to in-store service, including curbside pickup, home delivery and in some places, even drive-thrus. Almost all cannabis retailers have an online menu, usually updated at least weekly if not daily, and many of them allow patients and customers to place orders online by moving desired items into a cart much like shopping on a site like Amazon. The online menu ordering allows for fast and easy pickup with very limited contact with other humans. Budtenders and delivery drivers are wearing protective masks and rubber gloves, using lots of hand sanitizer and keeping all exchanges very brief. The only problem with the system in most places is that cannabis retailers are still a cash business for the most part. Cash is relatively dirty compared to just about any other method of payment. Not all states have legalized medical or recreational cannabis and in those areas people are still having to turn to the traditional black market in order to acquire cannabis. Karen O'Keefe of the Marijuana Policy Project has stated, "In the context of this crisis, it's also more of a risk because the people selling marijuana illegally aren't following all the social distancing requirements, sanitation requirements, things like that." If you’re able to get your weed legally it’s a much safer option right now.

The fact that cannabis is essential in some states and illegal in others seems wrong, unfair, antiquated in a bad way and just completely backwards in any logical sense. It’s essential, like food, water, and electricity but if you post a photo of cannabis on Facebook it still gets flagged as “promoting drug content”. We aren’t allowed to use banks, credit cards, have no protections and aren’t eligible for the federal stimulus package or business loans. MJBIZ Daily wrote, “Many states have declared cannabis companies “essential businesses” during the COVID-19 pandemic and allowed them to maintain operations, but the U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump don’t appear to see the industry as fundamental.” It really doesn’t make sense and now it feels like the whole situation is being looked at closer than ever before. It’s unfortunate that it seems to have taken a possibly deadly global pandemic to finally get the cannabis industry to be taken seriously but it’s also good to at least be able to help people survive the isolation and quarantine without having to face it all without cannabis. Some medical patients would truly be at a complete loss if they were unable to get their medicine. Nice to be essential but a shame to still be federally illegal. Here’s hoping that it continues to change and evolve once the world gets back to working order.