Many Chicago pot shops will be closed to recreational customers Monday

At least 6 Chicago dispensaries won’t be selling pot to recreational users Monday as supply issues stall the first week of sales.

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Customers make their purchases at Mission Dispensary on Jan. 1, 2020.

Brian Rich/Sun-Times

At least six Chicago dispensaries are closed to recreational marijuana customers Monday as many retailers grapple with supply issues in the wake of legalization. 

There are already limited places to purchase recreational marijuana in Chicago, as only 10 of the city’s 11 pot shops have earned licenses to sell both medical and recreational pot. On top of that, one of those stores, Maribis of Chicago in Brighton Park, opted to keep its doors closed until February due to concerns over supply.

Four of the stores that aren’t selling recreational pot Monday — MOCA in Logan Square, NuMed in West Town, Zen Leaf in Norwood Park and The Herbal Care Center on the Near West Side — said they were either sold out of product or had limited supply.

Danny Marks, MOCA’s owner, said the shop plans to maintain its dedication to its medical patients but acknowledged that there are supply concerns. MOCA was also closed to recreational users Sunday but plans to start selling to them again Tuesday.

“It’s a lot happening all at once in the first few days,” Marks noted.

A burglary at the store was reported at 8 a.m. Monday, according to Chicago police. The burglars broke in through a side door, possibly using a keycard, and stole an undisclosed amount of cash.

While NuMed is closed on Mondays to both recreational and medical pot buyers, the store is currently “sold out of recreational cannabis,” according to a message being relayed to folks calling the dispensary. It’s unclear how long supply issues will keep that store and Zen Leaf from selling recreational weed.

An employee at Midway Dispensary in Vittum Park confirmed that the store wouldn’t be serving recreational pot products until Thursday but wouldn’t say why.

Jason Erkes, a spokesman for Cresco Labs, said four of the company’s newly rebranded Sunnyside Dispensaries will be closed Monday “to reset and give the staff that has worked five 14-hour days straight a break.” That includes locations in Lake View, Elmwood Park, Rockford and Champaign.

However, Erkes said, the shops will have flower, vapes, concentrates and edibles available when the shops reopen Tuesday.

“There are no product supply shortages — just a shortage of state-approved employees to help efficiently service the hundreds of people that have been showing up every day to make their first legal cannabis purchase in Illinois,” Erkes said.

That statement runs counter to what many shoppers have reported after their first visits to Illinois’ legal dispensaries, some of which have set limits on purchases and stopped selling flower to recreational customers as they look to keep a state-mandated stash set aside for existing medical patients. 

After getting product deliveries over the weekend, Dispensary 33 in Uptown is serving a limited number of recreational customers on Monday, according to spokeswoman Abigail Watkins. Recreational shoppers can check-in at the store, but the amount of people that will be served in the coming days will be based on its inventory.

Mission in South Chicago, which has a $300 spending limit for recreational buyers, was still selling recreational pot Monday but will likely cut off those sales by 5 p.m. Columbia Care in Jefferson Park was also serving recreational guests as of Monday afternoon.

Enthusiastic pot users flooded the state’s few dozen shops licensed to sell recreational marijuana when those sales kicked off Wednesday, buying up nearly $3.2 million worth of pot products. The following day, sales topped $2.2 million. (Sales figures for Friday and Saturday weren’t immediately released to the Sun-Times.)

Industry analysts — and even pro-pot lawmakers — have warned of a shortage in Illinois. 

Andy Seeger — an analyst at the Brightfield Group, a cannabis research firm based in the Loop — noted that product shortages will continue to be an issue until more cannabis is cultivated and introduced into the market. A full harvest takes around 13 to 16 weeks to grow, he said.

“Demand will continue to increase for the next year and a half, two years at least as people enter the market, get more comfortable, the stigma is removed or they sample products while out with other people,” Seeger said. “It’s going to be up to supply to really meet that.”

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