States, of course, had differed on how to regulate sales of marijuana long before the pandemic. New York and New Jersey have allowed sales of medicinal marijuana to continue.
At Harmony Dispensary in Secaucus, N.J., Gov. Philip D. Murphy’s stay-at-home order set off a rush to stock up on marijuana, said Shaya Brodchandel, the company’s chief executive.
“We’ve seen a real spike,” Mr. Brodchandel said, noting that March 15 was the dispensary’s busiest day ever.
New rules limiting how many patients could be inside the building resulted in a line that stretched to the parking lot. This week, Mr. Brodchandel said, he switched to having patients pick up their marijuana without leaving their cars.
A team of 40 workers has been running the operation, 10 of them taking orders and making sales and about 30 tending to plants in a separate, 15,000-square-foot grow house, he said.