{"id":41790,"date":"2020-03-17T12:05:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T20:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2020\/03\/17\/sf-temporarily-closes-cannabis-stores-over-coronavirus-fears\/"},"modified":"2020-03-24T12:35:46","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T20:35:46","slug":"sf-temporarily-closes-cannabis-stores-over-coronavirus-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2020\/03\/17\/sf-temporarily-closes-cannabis-stores-over-coronavirus-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Temporarily Closes Cannabis Stores Over Coronavirus Fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Update: At 4:30 p.m. today 3\/17\/20, the San Francisco Department of Health announced the city\u2019s dispensaries would be able to remain open as \u201cessential businesses.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n

All of San Francisco\u2019s cannabis dispensaries were ordered shut down by city health officials late Monday, an extraordinary and so far unprecedented step that may yet be repeated in other cities as the coronavirus pandemic continues to profoundly disrupt Americans\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

Bay Area elected officials midday Monday declared a \u201cshelter in place\u201d order for the six-county region and its nearly 7 million residents. Only \u201cessential businesses\u201d including grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies, banks and auto-repair garages would remain open; all other merchants were ordered to close.<\/p>\n

And according to an e-mail from San Francisco Department of Public Health sent to the city\u2019s roughly three dozen retail cannabis outlets at about 6:30 p.m. that evening, cannabis sales are not \u201cessential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time, Cannabis Dispensaries and Cannabis Delivery Services are not considered an \u2018Essential Business,\u2019\u201d wrote Mohanned Malhi, the city cannabis program\u2019s principal health inspector. \u201cYou will need to close your business starting March 17, 2020. You will be notified of any future updates or information immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

San Francisco cannabis dispensaries, briefly beneficiaries of coronavirus-induced buying panic, are now shuttered. Ordered closed starting tomorrow by order of city Department of Public Health, joining bars and restaurants. Delivery also banned. No medicine for patients. pic.twitter.com\/IYknfvvZ9A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Chris Roberts (@cbloggy) March 17, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A spokesperson for DPH did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

There was speculation that\u00a0San Francisco<\/a>\u00a0ordered its dispensaries closed to avoid a repeat of scenes seen over the weekend, when enormous lines of spooked cannabis buyers queued outside the city\u2019s cannabis stores in seek of supplies.<\/p>\n

If so, the abrupt shutdown order had the opposite effect, as even larger crowds of even more spooked cannabis buyers \u2014 faced with the reality of at least three weeks with no legal cannabis access \u2014 arrived at the city\u2019s dispensaries, seeking one last purchase before service ended at 10 p.m., multiple dispensary operators told Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lines were [blocks long], which completely defeats the purpose,\u201d said Sarah Shrader, an executive at Bay Area Safe Alternatives on San Francisco\u2019s Divisadero Street. \u201cIt was insanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some dispensaries in the state had been given special permission from the state Bureau of Cannabis Control to do \u201chand-offs\u201d to customers arriving in parking lots or at storefront doors.<\/p>\n

Prohibiting even that make-do in San Francisco means that cannabis consumers and medical-cannabis patients \u2014 many of whom are low income or seriously ill, and likely do not have the material resources to lay in a three-week supply of increasingly expensive legal cannabis \u2014 will be forced to patronize the state\u2019s thriving black market, potentially exposing themselves to dangerous moldy or\u00a0pesticide-laden cannabis<\/a>\u00a0as well as the coronavirus, critics say.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear what path other cities will take. Dispensaries in Los Angeles, Vallejo, Oakland and Berkeley remained open as of mid-day Tuesday but that could quickly change.<\/p>\n

The Board of Supervisors in Alameda County, responsible for Oakland and Berkeley, location of some of the oldest and busiest cannabis dispensaries in the country, was set to take up the question of \u201cessential businesses\u201d at its meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Greg Minor, Oakland\u2019s assistant city administrator responsible for the city\u2019s cannabis program, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Regulators in Los Angeles did not immediately respond to a similar query asking about that county\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

According to Oakland-based\u00a0cannabis attorney James Anthony<\/a>, dispensaries absolutely meet the definition of an \u201cessential business,\u201d because for medical-cannabis patients, cannabis stores are \u201chealthcare operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCannabis has been recognized as medicine, and therefore healthcare, by all of California since the voters so deemed it in 1996,\u201d Anthony wrote in a letter submitted to county officials. \u201cSince 2005, the County has recognized and permitted cannabis businesses for healthcare purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has yet to receive a response, he told Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n

If dispensaries are to shut down, the impact could be widespread and immediate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently have 13,795 registered patient members receiving medical marijuana under doctor\u2019s orders,\u201d Debby Goldsberry, an executive at Magnolia Wellness in Oakland, wrote to the Oakland City Council on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne person after another is worried, asking questions we can\u2019t answer, and expressing absolute terror that their medicine supply will be cut off,\u201d she wrote. \u201cPeople do not have enough money to stock up through April 7, and they did not have time to do so either, before the end of today.\u201d<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, do you have enough cannabis to get you through a \u201cshelter in place\u201d?<\/p>\n

The post SF Temporarily Closes Cannabis Stores Over Coronavirus Fears<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: SF Temporarily Closes Cannabis Stores Over Coronavirus Fears<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: At 4:30 p.m. today 3\/17\/20, the San Francisco Department of Health announced the city\u2019s dispensaries would be able to remain open as \u201cessential businesses.\u201d All of San Francisco\u2019s cannabis dispensaries were ordered shut down by city health officials late Monday, an extraordinary and so far unprecedented step that mayContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4340,50,13218,13342,53,151],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41791,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41790\/revisions\/41791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}