I could see the explanations you presented being valid, but it's fair to note that these were not originally considered essential services in Colorado. When it

I could see the explanations you presented being valid, but it's fair to note that these were not originally considered essential services in Colorado. When it was announced that they would be shutting down recreational dispensaries and liquor stores, a friend sent me picture of a huge line that had formed outside of one. Pretty soon, Colorado announced that liquor stores and dispensaries would be able to stay open after all. I felt like this decision might have been based on fear of too many people suddenly congregating around those points at the worst possible moment, and the rollback might have been done to spread out the lines over time. Another thought I had was that perhaps after seeing those lines they feared the protests of quarantine would bring more participants out if people were cut off from their favorite drug supplies. All speculation, of course, but whatever their reasons, the decision (at least in Colorado) wasn't made until after it became evident that people were forming long lines in response to the announced shutdown. Perhaps they rethought it for other reasons, I only know the timeline. Edit: just to clarify, when I say "valid" above I mean "the reason these decisions were made" -- my use of this term was not meant to suggest that the reasons given would be a clever basis for policy. Alcohol withdrawal would be a real problem. While I don't support making either drug discussed illegal, I generally think weed is less of a detriment to society, yet in the context of discussing "essential" services during a pandemic access to weed seems less essential than staving off the life threatening withdrawal symptoms of alcohol.