Legalize marijuana home delivery in Washington - another lesson of COVID-19 pandemic

When Gov. Jay Inslee ordained marijuana stores “essential” but ordered bars, restaurants and countless other businesses to close last month, he made a dubious decision with awkward optics. Let people keep buying smokable weed while a devastating respiratory infection is sweeping Washington? Not a good look.

Then again, state law left him little choice. He could have, probably should have, halted recreational pot sales. But marijuana has been recognized as medicine for qualifying patients in Washington for more than two decades, and visiting a retail outlet is the only legal way to purchase it.

It’s time for state lawmakers to confront this anachronism. That means figuring out how best to implement a home-delivery option for cannabis products.

Keeping licensed pot shops open during the coronavirus pandemic has raised eyebrows from Littlerock, Washington, to Little Rock, Arkansas.

In a recent national TV interview, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson listened to Inslee boast about Washington’s social-distancing rules. Then Hutchinson interjected a compliment of the most backhanded kind. “Even with a stay-at-home order that’s one of the most stringent,” he said with a smile and genial drawl, “you can still go buy your marijuana.”

Frankly, we don’t care what any politician 2,300 miles away thinks of our public-health policies, much less one of the few US governors still recklessly resisting a stay-home order.

What does matter is the shutdown’s impact on Washington retailers and small businesses. Many were operating before the dawn of our state’s recreational cannabis industry, approved by voter initiative in 2012. They might now wonder: Washington survived 123 years of statehood without legal pot. Why’s it so essential now?

Here’s a question that may be more to the point: Why can’t Washingtonians buy medical-grade cannabis products from the safety of home?

Other Western states that were legal-marijuana pioneers have since passed home-delivery laws; Colorado recently joined California, Nevada and Oregon. During the COVID-19 emergency, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has ordered all marijuana dispensaries to temporarily shift to delivery only.

Medical cannabis products, in particular, should be more accessible than Washington law allows. Requiring patients who are frail, sick or immunocompromised to leave home to get medicine is ill-advised during a pandemic. Or anytime, for that matter.

Washington lawmakers should finally get serious about home-delivery legislation. Medical marijuana would be a natural place to start; there should be no hurry to extend it to able-bodied recreational users.

Marijuana stores have seen a spike in sales during the COVID-19 lockdown, especially right after it went into effect. They’ve taken steps to reduce transmission risk, such as disinfecting surfaces and encouraging social distancing. Washington also tweaked its rules to temporarily allow curbside pickup.

But none of this would be necessary if Washingtonians could have cannabis products delivered to their doorstep.

Officially, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board is neutral on the issue. In a 2018 report completed at the Legislature’s request, however, the board noted the merits of home delivery, saying it “would bring state policy in alignment with the general principle that patients should have access to medicines that may contribute to their well-being.”

The Washington CannaBusiness Association has historically opposed mobile sales, saying they could disrupt safety enforcement and quality control, as well as walk-in business and tax revenue. But that was before coronavirus showed up and changed everything. The group is currently surveying its members on the subject.

We understand the cannabis industry has huge financial interests to protect; nationally, it employs 240,000-plus full-time workers — more than four times the coal industry. Keeping many of those jobs filled during a pandemic is good for the US economy.

We realize, too, that Washington government has big revenue at stake; it collected $395.5 million in legal marijuana income and license fees in 2019 — $172 million more than it collected in liquor revenues.

We also get that policymakers can’t flip a switch and create an effective, responsible home-delivery system overnight.

But let’s face it: The fact that Washington weed retailers are open during a public-health shutdown rests on a tortured definition of an “essential” business. Medical marijuana may indeed be essential. Having to buy it at a store is not.

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 1:10 PM.