Medical marijuana industry booming in Florida during COVID-19 pandemic

Since Florida confirmed its first COVID-19 cases early last month, people are getting more things delivered, from groceries to food, to mixed cocktails to go.

And more and more Floridians are having medical marijuana delivered straight to their homes

“In light of everything that’s been happening, we’ve seen at least a two-to-three fold increase in delivery,” said Vinit Patel, Operations Manager for 28 Curaleaf dispensaries in Florida.

“We saw a tremendous spike in sales actually. Probably the first week of April, last week of March, when all of this news really started to become real here in the state of Florida,” Patel said.

About 334,000 Floridians currently have medical marijuana cards.

Retired New York City bus driver Allan Love is one of them.

“I get it for back pain and it does work. I can live without it, but I don’t want to,” said Love, who started using medical marijuana about a year ago.

Love was shocked by the big crowds when he visited a dispensary recently.

“I saw people coming in and out, none of them wearing masks or gloves. No PPEs whatsoever. No social distancing that I could see,” Love said. [Read more at ABC Action News]