Covid-19 and Marijuana
Wednesday, April 29th, 2020
Covid-19 and Marijuana
Look… it takes more than slapping some gloves on a budtender to keep you, our clientele, safe during this pandemic. I wanted to say that right from the get-go because I’ve heard that a few of the other shops in town haven’t done anything besides giving their budtenders gloves, and that’s unfortunate. Each and every marijuana dispensary in this state is on the frontline of keeping our community safe given that we’ve all been designated as “essential” (which means we get to stay open), and given that we’re all stewards of this industry, I wish the other guys were doing more. But, c’est la vie, I guess. I’ll simply tell you what we’ve done to keep you safe, and then hopefully, the other guys will catch on.
I know I wrote a whole blog (that you can read HERE) on how to purchase marijuana during this bizarre time, and we have more information on our homepage that outlines the process, but this week, I wanted to tell you about all the changes we’ve made behind the scenes with your safety in mind so you can rest a little easier after shopping here. But before we get to that, I wanted to take a moment and defend the fact that dispensaries have been designated as “essential,” because a couple people have called in and asked why that is. Well, for one, you simply have no clue how many veterans use cannabis because they believe it helps with their PTSD; you have no clue how many people with chronic pain turn to weed to get off prescription medications given all the nasty side effects. Is that something that should be taken away during a pandemic? And even if it wasn’t for the way marijuana could help with such issues, I swear there’s nothing better than pot if you’re stuck at home for a month with daytime TV and your family. Lastly, have you heard about all those forgivable loans that small businesses are getting from the government if they have to close? Well, guess which industry doesn’t qualify? Yup, the cannabis industry (even though we pay more than our fair share in taxes). So, yeah… we couldn’t close even if we wanted to, but we don’t, because we know for a fact that what we provide is essential; we’re going to stay on the frontline and do everything we can to help our community during this craziness.
Alright; let’s get into all the “behind the scenes” stuff. For one, we aren’t letting anyone into the back of the building who doesn’t absolutely need to come in. This means that all our cannabis couriers and the FedEx drivers and all the random people who come here on business must wait outside instead of coming in to contaminate the space we’re keeping clean for you. Not only that, but you wouldn’t believe how much rubbing alcohol we’re going through. Every box that comes in this building is quarantined, and we spray each box with a ridiculous amount of alcohol just to make sure the nasty doesn’t get into our building.
We’re also limiting the number of employees we have in the building simultaneously, and we’re taking the recommended 6’ of social distancing seriously: we rearranged our entire floorplan to accommodate the distance. We even ordered enough plexiglass to build a whale aquarium, and we constructed transparent barriers for our curbside pickup (which is also brand-new), and we built a window inside our store for walkup. Granted, it feels a bit weird selling pot through a window (it’s like those scenes in prison movies where people put their fists on the glass), but hey, it keeps you (and us) safe, so that’s what we’re doing. For real, we even drilled a hole through a wall so we could put a red/green light on the outside of the building. We’re letting only one customer in the building at a time, so if the light is red, it means someone is in here and you’ll need to wait in your car, but if it’s green, come on in. And yes, we spray the pin pads and ATM with alcohol after every customer, and we do the same with our door handles and anything else a customer might touch. See what I mean about doing more for you than giving our budtenders gloves?
Now, I know what I’m about to say seems axiomatic, but people have called asking, so I’ll put it in writing: no, marijuana doesn’t cure Covid-19. I promise. If it did, our line would be much longer than it is. And in fact, quite a few doctors out there are suggesting that you don’t smoke anything during this time, including weed, because smoke of any sort doesn’t mix well with respiratory-based illnesses. And when you think about it, what I just typed should clue you in to the fact that we care about you—we make our money by selling you things to smoke, and yet here we are being honest about smoke and Covid-19 because your health is more important to us than profit. This is a small town, after all, so your health is our health; the health of this community is the health of my family. However, being high during this period is much better than the alternative, so try an edible. That way, you can stay happy without putting smoke in your lungs: you can have your edible and eat it, too.
Honestly, why do you think we have so many edible specials right now? We’re offering 25% off Incredibles bars, and we have a buy one, get one for a dollar special on our 1906 edibles. Both specials will run all month long, and we’ll have a deal on a brand new product from Ripple. See? We care, you matter, and we’re all going to get through this together. We’re going to stay open because what we do is indeed essential, and we’re going to keep doing all that we can to keep you, and our staff, as safe as possible, because it isn’t an exaggeration to say that We’re Your Best Buds!