Illinois extends curbside pickup for medical patients to January 31

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) issued a notice on December 29 to state medical-licensed marijuana dispensaries that stated curbside pickup for medical patients would stop at the start of 2023. But just five days later, the department extended the variance through January 31.

In the December notice to dispensaries, the IDFPR wrote “there will be no further extensions of this variance.” 

Dina Rollman, senior vice president of government affairs at Green Thumb Industries, was unsure about why the variance needed to end in the first place.

“We have taken steps to try to understand what the purported reason was for ending curbside and we have been unable to discern any basis for it whatsoever,” she said.

Green Thumb Industries operates 77 dispensaries across the country under the brand name Rise, ten of which are in Illinois, the maximum allowed by state law. Five of the Illinois dispensaries are dual-purpose facilities, meaning they sell cannabis for recreational and medical patients.

The variance instituted by the IDFPR, the regulatory arm of Illinois’s cannabis market, is centered around the security and recordkeeping subsection of the medical marijuana program law. The IDFPR did not respond to requests for comment.

“We’re not aware of any negative occurrences that would remotely justify taking away curbside,” Rollman said when asked if any security issues have arisen.

GTI is the only multi-state operator in Illinois that offers curbside or roll-thru at all of their Illinois dual-purpose dispensaries in Canton, Effingham, Joliet, Mundelein and Naperville.

“It’s really great for those who are immunocompromised or who have physical limitations,” Rollman said. “Especially during a midwest winter when you can also add weather conditions. It’s really a nice offering to be able to let patients stay in their car and transact their business.

“Not only has COVID been an ongoing concern for our patients but there are other respiratory ailments that are making their rounds,” Rollman said. According to the Illinois Wastewater Surveillance System, which monitors levels of disease-causing pathogens in sewer systems, COVID-19 cases have been on the rise since late December.

Other major multi-state operators in Illinois such as Cresco Labs and PharmaCann, which operate Sunnyside and Verilife respectively, do not offer curbside pickup at any of their dual-purpose dispensaries.

While the pause on canceling curbside pickup was welcomed by medical marijuana patients, many the Reader spoke to say it should be extended indefinitely.

“I feel like they don’t understand the effect of how that’s going to compromise some patients’ ability to get their medication and care that they need,” said Emily Mosher, a medical patient since June 2020 and former employee at dual-purpose dispensary Hatch in Addison.

“It just didn’t make any sense to me,” said Michael Viles, 67, who has been a medical card holder since October 2019. “I’ve got a wife at home; she’s got [respiratory] complications. I can’t afford to drag any germs home with me, and I try to do every precaution I can.”

Since Governor J.B. Pritzker lifted the statewide mask mandate on February 28, 2022, masking has dropped off inside businesses all over the city, dispensaries included.

“I guarantee you when you go in the dispensaries, nobody’s wearing masks anymore, and some of them I go into are small dispensaries and it’s pretty crowded, so I didn’t like it,” Viles said.

There is a real need for options, especially for people living with disabilities as some medical patients are, said Laura Saltzman, transportation policy analyst at Access Living, a civil rights group dedicated to helping people living with disability.

“Transportation is already difficult and complicated for people with disabilities, making things as easy as possible is good. Limiting the complications is so necessary,” Saltzman said. “COVID is permanent, this variance built around COVID should be permanent.”

Ryan Sykes, a medical consultation advisor at dual-purpose dispensary NuEra in East Peoria, said that curbside is one of the positive changes that were instituted when COVID forced the state to reconsider procedures. The application process for a medical cannabis card was digitized, and the state switched to digital proof instead of printed cards. Also, medical patients were no longer required to shop at a single dispensary.

Curbside pickup is “beneficial for all parties involved. Just along the lines of the same with the other COVID improvements,” Sykes said. “It really is just a quality-of-life improvement for people that are already marginalized and disadvantaged in ways that most other people don’t have to deal with.”In early December, while touring the first social equity dispensary in Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker said he was open to the idea of allowing dispensaries to deliver cannabis to people who make online orders. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment about curbside pickup.

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