EDITOR’S NOTE: On March 24, NJ Cannabis Insider will host a free live webinar with some of the state’s leading cannabis industry experts to answer pressing questions about medical marijuana, hemp and legalization. Register here.

The state Department of Health announced Monday it will enact regulatory reforms to ease burdens of patients seeking to buy medical marijuana during the coronavirus outbreak.

Dispensaries can now offer curbside pickup to patients, ridding them of the need to enter the storefronts or stand in lines. Patients can also now register caregivers, or designated people to pick up their medicine at the reduced fee of $20 previously offered to some low-income patients.

The regulatory reforms will remain in place as long as the executive order declaring a public health emergency around COVID-19 does. While the state has taken additional steps to restrict businesses and travel, medical marijuana dispensaries are considered essential and may remain open.

Patients have said long lines and crowds at dispensaries leave them concerned, as many have pre-existing conditions or immune system deficiencies that could make them more susceptible to contracting a serious case of the virus. Some have criticized the state for not allowing patients to grow their own marijuana at home, a measure that would help them with supply shortages and high prices.

There are nine dispensaries across the state serving more than 70,000 patients, and only six up-and-running cultivation sites.

The Health Department on Monday also waived the requirement for dispensaries to conduct in-person consultations for new patients, and instead allows those to take place over the phone.

To jumpstart the curbside pickup process, the dispensaries must submit planned procedures to the Health Department and also notify local governments and police departments. So that service will not be available immediately.

Jeff Brown, assistant commissioner of the state Health Department who oversees the medical marijuana program, said no employees at the state’s alternative treatment centers have reported testing positive for the virus, nor have any patients who went to dispensaries recently.

But one, Harmony Dispensary in Secaucus, did suddenly close its doors Sunday.

“We are doing our best to continue to serve our patients during the COVID-19 pandemic," the dispensary said in a statement. "To better ensure our staff and our patients are healthy and safe during this crisis, we are working with the New Jersey Department of Health in amending our protocols and methods of safely dispensing medicine. We will reopen as soon as possible.”

Brown said the dispensary is playing catchup after getting hit hard over the weekend and late last week, eventually running out of packaged flower. They still have cannabis flower in bulk.

There are no shortages across the program, he said, although long lines do continue daily.

Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center in Cranbury has closed early for several days due to extreme patient demand. The dispensary posted to its website that going forward, it will serve patients with even numbered IDs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and odd numbered ones on Wednesdays and Fridays.

“We continue to work with the industry to try to get this at least to a manageable place,” Brown said. “We’re stuck in this cycle now where people are worried about long lines, so they rush to the [dispensaries.]”

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Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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