Is cannabis essential? That’s up to cities, counties

As Bay Area officials on Tuesday scrambled to interpret the shelter-in-place order enacted across the region, cannabis dispensaries and licensed cannabis companies in the seven counties appeared to be operating in a state of limbo.

The order, released Monday afternoon, provided a list of essential services that could remain open, including grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and medical facilities.

But it left room for interpretation when it came to certain businesses, including the cannabis industry, a sector that straddles the medical and recreational service markets and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax revenue each year.

And while cannabis products may not seem like an essential item for some, many residents rely on medical marijuana for treatment and pain relief.

In San Jose, dispensaries continued to serve customers, with residents coming out of mandated isolation to form long lines around stores selling cannabis products.

San Jose spokeswoman Rosario Neaves said the city is considering dispensaries to be essential providers of health care needs and therefore exempt from the order, so long as the businesses take measures to ensure social distancing.

“In our case in the city, we’re considering medical cannabis a health care 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 way.

Although San Jose dispensaries were serving both recreational and medical customers Tuesday, Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams said in a statement that dispensaries could stay open as essential businesses only “for medical purposes, not recreational.”

Williams could not be reached to elaborate on the county’s stance.

Officials in Santa Cruz County announced that they are allowing cannabis dispensaries to continue operating via delivery or pickup, but that customers will be prohibited from gathering in a store, according to the county’s website.

In San Francisco, however, cannabis companies were told Tuesday morning that they would need to temporarily shut down their businesses.

By Tuesday evening, however, the city health department apparently had changed its mind.

“Cannabis is an essential medicine for many San Francisco residents,” the agency said in a statement.

“Dispensaries can continue to operate as essential businesses during this time, while practicing social distancing and other public health recommendations.”

Officials in Contra Costa and Alameda counties did not respond to requests for comment.

Eaze, a San Franciscobased cannabis delivery service, said on Twitter on Tuesday morning that it would comply with San Francisco’s order and shut down delivery within the city but continue to service customers in the surrounding Bay Area.

Outside San Jose dispensary Haze, resident Robert Doering was among 10 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.”

Noting the line to get inside Haze on Tuesday morning, Doering said: “It’s way longer at the grocery store. Now those lines are really, really long.”

Dispensaries Caliva and CA Collective in San Jose and Airline Supply Company in Santa Clara were all taking in customers Tuesday.

At Caliva, more than 20 people — some wearing face masks and gloves — were lined up with about 2 to 3 feet of space between them, though the county’s social distancing requirement calls for 6 feet.

As the day went on, an employee at Caliva continually came outside to call on customers to spread out.

“It’s critical for us to remain open,” he said.

Another employee raised concerns about the company’s decision to allow instore sales to continue during the pandemic.

“This choice is putting at risk the retail employees, customers and by proxy our society’s most vulnerable citizens,” the employee said.

With a lack of clarity from officials, some Bay Area dispensaries were making significant changes to their businesses on their own to try to follow the new requirements while also maintaining some of their operations.

At Delta Dispensary in Antioch, the business said it received permission from the state’s 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.

Ashley Bargenquast, an attorney with the firm Tully & Weiss in Martinez, argued that both medical and recreational cannabis dispensaries should remain open while the shelter-in-place order is in effect, but that medicinal dispensaries are clearly exempt from the policy.

“In Contra Costa’s order, they say absolutely you can access care to your medical provider and make sure to have your medicines, and that your ability to go to your pharmacy will continue to be available. And that’s because people need to have access to their medicine,” Bargenquast said.

Recreational dispensaries are analogous to stores that sell alcohol, which have been allowed to stay open in California, she added.

“The fact is you have a whole population that’s supposed to stay home, and the idea of stopping them from accessing legal cannabis is just going to lead them to the idea of acquiring it illicitly. If you don’t provide a way for people to get to legal cannabis, they’re just going to turn back to their old dealer,” Bargenquast said.

“That cannabis is less tested and less safe, and can cause a whole slew of health issues the health care system really doesn’t need right now.”