ONTARIO, Oregon — Oregon Governor Kate Brown banned eating in restaurants and closed down bars on Monday, however, the cannabis industry keeps on rolling in Ontario.
The owner of Burnt River Farms told it has been business as usual as his store hasn't experienced anything crazy since the World Health Organization officially called the coronavirus a pandemic.
"We may have seen a slight uptick," said Shawn McKay of Burnt River Farms. "As far as it relates to the crisis, I don’t think it is related we haven’t seen anybody stocking up.”
So we asked McKay does he have concerns that his business would be forced to shutdown because of COVID-19 and he said no.
"Cannabis dispensaries are deemed as an essential service, it kind of falls in line with a pharmacy," said McKay. "The state of Oregon has leaned really heavily on the recreational market to take the place of the medical market by offering a safe well regulated product that is of a medical quality.”
McKay also told us he has a large supply of marijuana and he's not worried about demand overtaking supply, Burnt River Farms operates their own marijuana farm 30 miles down the road in Huntington.
“There are a lot of people that depend on the cannabis dispensaries for their medicine and well being so it would take something pretty drastic to close these stores," said Mckay.
He did tell us the Governor's office is looking into tweaking some of the rules to make purchasing marijuana safer during these times, he told us his shop would be open to curbside assistance but they can't do that without the government stepping in.
