Marijuana regulators in Michigan announced that legal medical and recreational dispensaries may service customers from their cars due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Michigan state Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) said in a statement Monday that licensed pot shops may temporarily provide “curbside pickup” services to help minimize the outbreak.
“Customers may remain in their parked vehicle, in the parking lot of a licensed provisioning center or adult-use retailer,” MRA said in the statement. “Customers may complete an order including payment for their product via the internet or they may place their order once parked at the facility. An employee from the licensed facility or adult-use establishment is permitted to complete the sales transaction by interacting with the customer in the parking lot and recording the necessary information into the statewide monitoring system.”
Michigan is also allowing all licensed marijuana sellers in the state to deliver to customers, provided their procedures for such are authorized by the regulatory agency first.
“The MRA encourages the use of home delivery when applicable,” the agency said in the statement. “The MRA will make every effort to review, process and approve requests from licensees within 24-48 hours.”
Michigan legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes in 2008 and 2018, respectively, flying in the face of long-standing federal prohibition.
More recently, adults 21 and older have been allowed to purchase recreational, or “adult use,” marijuana from state-licensed retail dispensaries since December.
Thirty-three states in the country have legalized the medicinal use of marijuana to varying degrees, including 11 that have passed laws legalizing recreational pot.
Michigan is among only nine states in the nation that allow recreational marijuana dispensaries to operate legally, however.
Recreational marijuana dispensaries in the state reported a total of nearly $32 million in sales between Dec. 1, 2019, and March 1, 2020, the MRE said previously.
Health officials have advised people to avoid crowds and practice “social distancing” to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
At least 4,226 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed across the U.S., including 53 in Michigan, according to statistics published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, at least 75 people have died after contracting COVID-19, according to the CDC.
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