A reader asks how people will renew medical marijuana certificates during a pandemic.

Good question.


The state began approving certificates in 2019 and then granted an automatic one-year renewal in April 2019 to the 10,000 or so who already had them in advance of the first sales in May.

So at least 10,000, and likely many more, certificates are up for renewal now. This requires a visit to a doctor.


The reader who wrote to me says she was told by the Health Department that it had prepared an emergency order to extend the renewal period but the governor hasn’t signed it. He was, incidentally, a foe of legalizing the medical use of marijuana.\

The Health Department says the rextension of the renewal deadline is “under discussion, but a final decision hasn’t been reached.”