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"It's fair to say that during any crisis people use intoxicants more than normal,” said Rick Thompson, owner of Michigan Cannabis Business Development Group. But he argued the increase in sales was also a "testament to the strength of the industry."
"Once social distancing is lifted and industry returns to normal, the recreational industry will rise like a cork from the bottom of a bathtub faster than any other industry would recover," Thompson said.
The largest increase in sales in the past nine weeks occurred during the week of April 13-19, when sales skyrocketed 57% to $7.2 million.
That week marked the lead-up to April 20, a day celebrated by many cannabis activists, as well as the start of the Internal Revenue Service's dispersal of $1,200 federal stimulus checks.
Whitmer’s stay-home order, first issued March 23, prohibited businesses from requiring employees to leave home except in the case of employees “necessary to sustain or protect life or to conduct minimum basic operations.” Less than 5% of all businesses were considered "essential."
That order appeared largely to exempt medical and recreational facilities, according to guidance given to marijuana licensee by the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency. Whitmer ran for governor in 2018 on a platform of backing recreational marijuana legalization, as did the other Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls
The medical and recreational facilities were allowed to continue operating so long as employees kept six-foot distances and all sales were completed via curbside service or home delivery, per the agency's guidance.
The decision to allow the continued sale of recreational marijuana was largely due to the industry's ties to medical marijuana sales, said David Harns, a spokesman for the Marijuana Regulatory Agency.
"Most of the adult use retailers were located in medical provisioning centers so keeping medical access a priority basically resulted in keeping sites open," Harns said.