The future of weed? Vending machines could transform legal marijuana industry

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/05/marijuana-vending-machine-zazzz-washington-state

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Buying medical marijuana just got a lot easier for the United States’ booming legal-weed industry – and a lot more high-tech.

Washington state’s first pot vending machine is located inside Seattle Caregivers medical dispensary, where employees will keep it stocked with pot-infused edibles as well as marijuana flowers.

This doesn’t mean that anyone can just walk up, stuff in a couple dollars and buy the kush of their choice – even if the nation’s top medical official is warming up to weed.

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“That machine is like a miniature little Fort Knox,” Greg Patrick, a spokesman for the American Green, told NBC news.

First-time users of the machine – called the ZaZZZ, from a company called American Green – must swipe both their medical marijuana cards and their driver’s license to prove they are allowed to buy the products. The information provided is then compared to the biometrics data from the machine’s camera. If the two match, customers can create an account and complete their purchase. On future visits, they can simply present their driver’s license to pull up their account information and make their purchase.

American Green is considering building up the biometric security by requiring customers to provide fingerprints or retinal scans to confirm their identity, Stephen Shearin, president and chief operations officer of American Green, told the Daily Dot.

All of the company’s vending machines are currently located inside medical marijuana dispensaries and are only available for use when the dispensaries are open. That means there is always a dispensary employee nearby keeping watch and checking IDs.

“You never have access to the machine ever if there isn’t a human around to check your medical ID initially on your way in,” Shearin told King-TV in Seattle.

As medical marijuana becomes more widely accepted, high-tech pot startups – and potentially high-profile dispensaries – hope to get machines into locations out in the open.

Just as stamp vending machines have helped speed up service at US post offices, the vending machines at the dispensaries are intended to make shopping for cannabis convenient and speedy.

“Who wants to get stuck behind someone that’s asking a lot of questions?” said Shearin. “ZaZZZ will simplify, track and expedite the process in which marijuana users purchase their favorite products.”

The machine – which also accepts bitcoin – sounds like something from the future. But the truth is, such innovations in the field of medical marijuana are years ahead of the regulations.

Last year, Colorado was the first state to get its own vending machine for cannabis products. That machine, however, sold only edibles; Seattle’s is the first vending machine to dispense marijuana flower buds. Overall, there are about 18 vending machines dispensing marijuana products in medical dispensaries in Arizona, California, Colorado and, as of Tuesday, Washington state.

Consider this: just four US states and the District of Columbia allow recreational use of cannabis. Less than half of the US – 23 states and Washington DC – have legalized some form of medical marijuana so far. Licensed growers cannot ship their products across state lines. Any products sold through the American Green vending machines must be grown in the states where the machines are located. The federal government doesn’t allow credit cards or debit cards to be used to purchase any cannabis products, so most dispensaries are cash only.

Related: Farmville creator: It's easier to help grow marijuana than negotiate with Facebook executives all day

This November, voters in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia voted in favor of legalizing marijuana, paving the way for similar ballots initiatives in states like California, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada and Arizona.

Additionally, on Wednesday, US surgeon general Vivek Murthy told CBS This Morning that some data shows that marijuana “can be helpful” for certain medical conditions and symptoms.

“I think we have to use that data to drive policymaking, and I’m very interested to see where that data takes us,” he said.

The vending machines might be ahead of their time, but that’s the way to go if you want to be part of the history, according to Patrick.

“It’s historic, there’s just no other way to state it. We saw the repeal of prohibition in the early 20th century and the mark that made on our country and the companies that did it right,” he told NBC. “We’re in that stage. This will only happen once in our country’s history, the repeal of this prohibition.”