San Francisco has ordered its residents this week to “shelter in place” to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
On Monday until April 7th, the Bay area has required that people stay indoors and most businesses to go remote or temporarily close.
According to Business Insider, guidelines over marijuana dispensaries remained unclear however until later Monday evening. This had many in San Francisco rushing to the dispensaries.
“Medical cannabis dispensaries are medical by definition, so they qualify as essential. But recreational retailers are not an essential service,” the San Francisco mayor’s office told Business Insider in an email.
“It is a policy question whether recreational cannabis businesses, like liquor stores that don’t sell food, should continue to operate,” the e-mail continued.
One dispensary called Bloom Room had told customers that it would stay open till 10pm to allow customers to pick up their medicine.
“We have just received notice from the City of San Francisco, Department of Public Health that Bloom Room is required to close until further notice,” a notice of temporary closure from the Bloom Room said. “We are staying open late tonight (10PM) in order to give our Members time to acquire their medicine.”
San Francisco Department of Health sent a tweet calling cannabis “an essential medicine for many San Francisco residents.”
“Dispensaries can continue to operate as essential businesses during this time, while practicing social distancing and other public health recommendations,” the department tweeted.
