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What better way to deal with a global, economy-shattering, life-altering, seemingly endless pandemic than tucking in at home (as the government has asked you to do for a few weeks now), watching something soothing (may I recommend Tiger King?), and rolling a joint, using some CBD drops, eating an edible, or whatever else is your preferred method of cannabis relaxation? But, of course, it’s not clear how much access to cannabis we’ll have as the shutdown goes on.

In response to a BuzzFeed News callout, hundreds of people across the country and in Canada told us how they were getting their cannabis products, how supply has changed, how their dealers have changed the process of buying, and whether they’re worried about future supply as the quarantine goes on. We also received a number of replies from dealers in different cities who either are ramping up sales due to high demand or have stopped selling entirely because they can’t do so safely. (In fact, thanks to me tweeting repeatedly about this story and looking for dealers who wanted to talk, my inbox now has a number of emails asking for leads on new dealers from people who lost theirs. If any of you know someone “mainly in the Sharon/Stoughton/Canton area” of Massachusetts, I know a guy who needs a guy.) For people in smaller towns, access to weed feels scarce, and there are a lot of worries that one day, it won’t be available at all. For people in larger cities, they can still access the products they need — just with stringent rules. In cities where weed is legal, only a certain number of customers can enter the dispensary at a time, meaning there are often long lines queued up outside. In cities where it’s illegal, dealers are often refusing cash and only taking Venmo, and not allowing customers to touch any of the product except what they buy. These rules are reasonable — and are likely going to become more and more customary — for the time we’re living in, but they’re not what you usually associate with inviting a stranger over to your home and rummaging through their backpack before choosing a treat for yourself. What’s clear, at least, is that the shutdown has only made people want to buy even more weed during our collective endless, unwanted staycation. No better time than now, when we have literally nothing to do but sit and wait, to ride out life with a blunt. As one dealer said, “Do you have any idea how many people would hate me if I stopped right now?”

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that smoking weed, especially right now, isn’t a great idea for your health. Smoking has a lot of adverse health effects in general, but, in the time of COVID-19, it’s even more ill-advised because it increases the risk of respiratory illness. The complications that come with coronavirus — tightening in your chest, trouble breathing — could be made worse if you’re a regular smoker.

But coronavirus notwithstanding, some people still need cannabis products for their health during this time. Whether it’s for pain management for cancer treatments, anxiety, depression, PTSD management, or just to while away the seemingly infinite hours that we’re all trapped in our own homes, the demand for weed has skyrocketed in the last few weeks. One cannabis seller in Denver wrote saying that business is busier than ever. “We’re considered an ‘essential service,’” 30-year-old “budtender” Jane (a pseudonym, which I’ve used for all respondents identified by name in this story) said, “which is a mixed blessing because I have to pay for my divorce and rent but I’m immunocompromised so I’m just trying to stay as clean as possible and socially distance.”

As one dealer said, “Do you have any idea how many people would hate me if I stopped right now?”

Jane confirmed that sales have jumped. “We usually see around $25,000 to $30,000 a day in sales, but we’ve seen that jump by roughly $10,000 daily in the last week,” she wrote, adding that tips have, unfortunately, decreased. “We used to see 350 people a day and now we see about 450.” In Denver, there’s a strict curbside-service-only rule, so the place where she works now sees between 25 and 40 customers in their parking lot every day. Many of them, however, aren’t locals. “We’re still seeing a flow of completely blase tourists. They just want to see Colorado, they don’t care,” she said. “Like the seniors who want to try topicals for the first time because they’re stiff from sitting around and just bored enough to give cannabis a whirl.” Another seller based in Dallas — where cannabis is not legal — also reported a big jump in their sales. “I normally make $300 per day during the week in profit, and about $2,000 each weekend,” he said. “Well, this past weekend I made $4,000 and $800 each [week]day.” When asked if he’s worried about his supply, he demurred: “Not at all. I run with the wolves.” What’s really affecting sales right now, however, is unemployment. So far, thanks to the pandemic’s disruption of the economy (and everything else, while we’re at it), more than 3 million unemployment claims have been filed nationally. “My customer base is very small,” said another cannabis seller based in Greensboro, North Carolina, where weed isn’t legal. “Even losing one person can really have an effect on the entire business.” On the other hand, people who still have discretionary income are buying twice as much as they normally do, and some dealers are only selling entire ounces in order to avoid leaving their houses more frequently than they have to. For frequent-ish users, there seems to be a minor panic about getting access to weed. “Some people are scared they’ll run out, just like with booze and toilet paper,” Jane said. “Some people need more now for the stress and chronic conditions exacerbated by that stress. Some need their medicine desperately as at any other time, like my medical patients who are sequestered because they have compromised immune systems from chemo. “Some are just preppers. Coloradans are stockpiling cannabis and guns like crazy. Some people even think they’ll never see legal weed again, that if we eventually shut down, that it’ll be the end of all of this,” Jane said. “They’re panic shopping, just like with everything else.”

For customers who smoke or consume weed for medical purposes, they are indeed panic shopping, but there’s a real fear behind their anxiety. Karen is mostly worried about access for the sake of her 18-year-old son, who has autism. She gives him edibles, which help him sleep along with calming his behavioral issues and his OCD, instead of the costly pharmaceuticals he used to be on, which also caused a host of unpleasant side effects.

“He was on Risperdal and it caused him to grow breasts,” she said. “I think he has the emotional and mental maturity of maybe a four year old. Here he was, 14 or 15, and he was growing breasts, and that was really confusing for him. We had to pull him off that medication but a lot of that dealt with a lot of OCD-type things and harmful behavior-type things.”

“As soon as I get my next check, I have a whole set-up ready to start growing my own.”