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Subscribe to RSSNow that Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana, entrepreneurs are embarking on what is being called "the green rush." NBC's Pete Williams reports.
If a California company has its way, recreational marijuana users in Colorado and Washington state will one day be able to get their pot out of vending machines.
Such machines are already in use in some states where medical marijuana is legal, but now the maker’s founder says the company is working to adapt the machines to comply with new laws in Colorado and Washington, where adults can legally use marijuana for recreation.
The vending machines for medicine require a fingerprint scan to verify the identification of the patient, which is then linked to a prescription on file.
But as Washington and Colorado figure out how to create a legal pot market for the masses, Hollywood-based Medbox, a public company, is offering up its expertise in convenient delivery systems.
"One day we envision these machines to be accessed, when it's allowed, 24 hours a day," Vincent Mehdizadeh, the founder and chief consultant of a subsidiary of Medbox that produces, installs and consults on the vending business, told NBC News. "One day in the future that may happen, but for now these machines sit behind the counter as an inventory control and compliance tool."
He said the Medbox machines and consultancy are in high demand in states such as Arizona, Massachusetts and Connecticut that have published medical marijuana regulations. Dispensaries use them to keep marijuana from being pilfered and comply with laws.
So where will all that 'legal' pot come from? Sale of pot stymied
Medbox is now offering to work with Washington and Colorado officials who are mobilizing to create the framework for a legal marijuana industry - and to collect taxes on pot sales.
"These machines behind the counter act an inventory control and taxation tracking tool so that the states can effectively track the taxes and collect on them more efficiently with real-time reporting directly from the machine to the state database," Mehdizadeh said.
The company also helps operators get licensed in states that have licensing programs.
"We've probably been the most successful consulting firm in the marijuana business," he said.
Mikhail Carpenter, spokesman for Washington’s Liquor Control Board, said Medbox has been in contact with the state but at this point no outside vendors have been chosen to help with marijuana sales.
Under state law, marijuana and marijuana-infused products, Carpenter said, would have to be sold from inside the confines of a retail outlet.
“So I can’t imagine with the way the law is written that you would see vending machines on the street corner,” Carpenter told NBC News.
In November, Washington and Colorado voters passed initiatives to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Those laws went into effect last month.
Buzzkill: Feds fire warning shot over pot legalization
In Washington state, voter-approved Initiative 502 made it legal for anyone 21 or over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of “solid marijuana-infused product” (pot brownies and such) or 72 ounces of “marijuana-infused liquid.
Washington’s Liquor Control Board has until Dec. 1 to develop rules for implementation of its new recreational marijuana law.
Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com
Colorado, under Amendment 64 to the state Constitution, legalized not only recreational use, but also home growing, which is still illegal in Washington.
Growing, selling and possessing marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and the federal government is reviewing options in both Washington and Colorado.
President Barack Obama last month weighed in on the issue, telling ABC’s Barbara Walters the federal government has more important things to do than go after recreational marijuana users.
“We have bigger fish to fry,” he told Walters.
Two Colorado University students are facing multiple felony charges after campus police say they fed marijuana-laced brownies to their unsuspecting classmates and professor. KUSA's Nick McGurk reports.
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Leave a Comment:
Everyone in America ALREADY HAS a pot vending machine. It's called your backyard garden. Flower pots for city dwellers.
Why would anyone want to give their money to some chump when anyone can grow high-grade marijuana.
This is why "the powers that be" are against it... there is no money in it for them! The stuff is not flue-cured string-cut Virginia tobacco: you don't need an agricultural or industrial infrastructure to produce it.
Going to pot, just like our country......
And the 'War on Cigarette Smoking' rages on while Pot Smoking is the new progressive darling. That's Transformation for you.
I can't believe that after all the years it took to get rid of Cigarett machines that we could even be remotely thinking of Pot machines? are we really that stupid. have we not learned anything from History? The founding fathers were wise in setting age limts for Federal Office they failed in not setting age limits for voters. it seems that the youth of our @!$%#ry and yes i was a yoth once, have become brain dead once again. maybe a person should have to be 35 to vote. at least by that time for the most part they have families etc and maybe just maybe a little bit of responsiblity. If that were true Obama wouldn't be president and 48 million people wouldn't be on the dole for Welfare.
Okay guys take your best shot. i'm immune to it becasue i know there is no reasonable exoplaination to put pot in vending machines other than the fact that you are a Pothead.
I think that the point of this article is that companies are finding their niche in the marijuana industry, and advancing with it. Give the opportunity to do so, I'm sure that vending machine companies would go for this. But, I don't think that they are saying that they are pushing for it, just that they're ready for it if the chance arrives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM
I fail to understand why tobacco smoking is so dangerous to the user and all around him/her but marijuana is safe.
Reading these stories and the comments that accompany them makes many in this country worry. People are irresponsible enough with alcohol. Now they'll do the same with drugs...or both. The responsible citizens in this country will end up paying the price when ridiculous laws are put in place or more tax money has to be spent on addiction problems, or unemployment. There are people on here saying that marijuana will reduce violence and be a cure for many social ailments. They may mask them, but they'll also make people even more lazy and unproductive than they already are. Then the responsible people are expected to take care of them because the media will portray it as a socioeconomic issue (i.e. get more money from the rich...except the celebrities... to pay for the bad habits of the poor). Everyone points to how it works for Europe. Their culture is much different and mature when it comes to drinking and marijuana. They typically don't use them in excess, and they don't constantly do stupid things when they do.
The one thing I don't really see or hear of is of the massive increase of deaths that will come to be as more and more states make it legal to have and use pot. Everyone knows that pot using leads to wanting more powerful drugs, and those who say its doesn,t or won't happen to them are fooling themselves. Also everyone knows that when people use weed they don't act or think like their normal self and in the end more sad endings will come about. Also what are we teaching our kids, that its ok to get high and kill someone. I for one really believe that satan is making one last push to take control of as many souls he can before our savior comes back in the near future. GOD help us all
Well said, and I totally agree!!!
Annual Death Rates
Tobacco 440,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000
Alcohol 85,000
Vehicle Crashes 26,347
Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,000
Incidents Involving Firearms 29,000
Sexual Behaviors 20,000
Anti-Inflammatory Drugs like Aspirin 7,600
Caffeine 1000
Scuba Diving 90
Lightning 90
Surfing 50
Skiing 38
Parachuting 20
Cannabis 0
So in America the land of the free, instead of exercising and eating healthy I can sit on my porch
eating Wendy’s baconater cheeseburgers,
smoking Camel filter-less cigarettes,
drinking espresso shots and Jack Daniels and Budweiser
while cleaning my gun collection and
loading my truck for my
surfing, skiing, scuba diving and sky diving trip.
All the time watching the clock waiting for 40 minutes to pass because I just took a Viagra and I'm hoping the side effects from the Prozac/Abilify combo my wife itakes doesn’t ruin her mood or worse she took an Ambien or Xanax and is asleep.
Recreational activities that result in around a MILLION DEATHS yearly.
Meanwhile because the guy next door chooses THE MOST BENIGN AND SAFEST option that has NEVER killed anyone in its thousands of years of existence…
He gets his front door kicked in by SWAT,
The family dog shot dead,
His wife and children terrorized
Handcuffed and hauled to jail
Loses his job and his life is ruined for a search that yields a pipe and dimebag.
...because the lady next door smelled pot.
It’s time for common sense to prevail over the decades of lies and misinformation.
Food, scuba diving, surfing, skiing, parachuting, smoking, espresso, alcohol, guns. trucks......all legal. Marijuana? Only legal in two states.
Just because you don't agree with the law(s) doesn't make one activity more dangerous than another.
Tell me how someone died from drinking espresso
Such wonderful news I am so tired of the stupid fiscal cliff propaganda. I can see little kids buying weed that would be the bad thing. It should be monitored like alcohol, otherwise great idea.
Have a shot of Whiskey, smoke a joint, and then please see my blog. Thanks.
My link:
well im glad that legalization is on it's way i prefer mariguana over alcohol heres why with mariguana i seem to have more control over my actions than alcohol .
with alcohol im 10' tall and undestructible becoming a self confident out of control ass yousually getting myself into trouble but afterwards im sick and wont want to drink for some time and i see that kind of additude in a lot of people that drink
with mariguana im relaxed and happy in control of my actions yousually wanting to be a joker wanting to see people laugh but i can use mariguana for days becoming a lazy zombie like person and i see that additude in a lot of people that get high
with alcohol people can tell right away that i have a buzz going
with mariguana people can't tell i have a buzz going unless dey get a good look at my blood shot eyes
so in my personal opinion mariguana is better than alcohol but like any drug moderation is the key i know its easyer said than done
Have a shot of Whiskey, smoke a joint, and then please see my blog. Thanks.
Why don't we just throw in some prefilled herion needles in there too and set the machines outside the schools
Yes because that is the message we are giving our kids.
Ron Paul, is that you?
mywingsforindependence.blogspot.com
I do have one question. Can a company in Ca., Wa. or Co. fire an employee for failing their drug test?
I don't do any kind of drugs but I do feel that pot and some of the other drugs should be legalized so the government can collect the taxes and it would give our farmers another cash crop and go a long way in shutting down the Mexican drug cartel. Also with legalization would come regulations so you would know the quality of the stuff you were getting.
Just think a couple of years we'd have a budget surpluss if we could keep the politions dirty hands out of it.
Biker-1212261 Have you ever had a family member that smoked pot. My kid gets so whacked out when he smokes it he can't function in society. He gets lazy, irrational, doesn't get along with friends or people at work. I hope not all people act like this. It takes a week or so for him to come back to normal
It would make a lot of money for the country or people would just grow their own
Drunks can soon get booze at 7- 11, airplanes, ball parks, restaurants, etc. (famous headlines from the past.)
Internet news headline writers have stolen so much methodology from us trollers. Good for them.
So, if you are high on marijuana while driving and cause an accident where people are killed, you can be charged with manslaughter. Right? So, if you are high in your workplace and don't do your job, you should be fired. Right? So, you claim you are mentally challenged while high on marijuana, you expect someone else to take care of you. Right? YOU ARE USING MY TAX DOLLARS TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BRAINLESS HABIT!!! Why don't doesn't a company put a competent brain in a vending machine and see if it will sell!
So if you teach a kid to draw and that kid paints a picture which creates such an emotional reaction in another human being that they act out violently - you can go to prison right?
Art - your tax dollars are ALREADY being wasted on this. The point is to take it out of the hands of organized crime and SAVE money on fighting a useless "war on drugs".
Fasttime.......Yes, I had a brother that smoked pot and also drank. He was mellow when he smoked pot and he wanted to kill everyone when he was drunk and for the next couple of days until he recovered from his hangover. Fortunately he decided after a few years that he needed to quit both. Now he is the brother I knew as a kid.
So what I guess I'm trying to say is that just like booze can give you a split personallity, I guessing that pot can do the same thing. I hope your kid decides that pot isn't the answer.
Bingo.
Personally I feel legalizing marijuana is ridicilious. It is an illegal substance and should stay that way. What kind of message are we giving our kids and grandkids by legalizing illegal drugs for all to use? Marijuana impairs your judgement just like alcohol does. So lets kill more brain cells and put more impaired drivers on the road. Lets make it easier for our kids to be exposed and get access to marijuana. Isnt there enough problems with keeping alcohol and drugs out of the hand of our children? So the idea of putting it into vending machines is even more ridicilious. What has our world and societies come to that we need to start legalizing illegal drugs? Your brains must be fried already to think this is ok. Im not ok with it. I dont want my kids and grandkids to have easier access to drugs. I dont want to be on the road with more impaired drivers and fear being hit by one that may be high on marijuana, that could seriously injure or kill someone. I refuse to support this idea in any way. Lets spend our money on dope instead of paying our bills or buying food to feed our families, cuz this is what happens. Pop on a drug test and see how fast you lose your job. College students who are convicted of drugs or drug related crimes cannot get grants or loans, so this can prevent them from furthering their education. In no way is this justified. It makes me sick!!!!!
Exactly, because now while it's illegal no one is using it.
You guys are having an interesting (maybe) argument - problem is that you're a few months too late. The law has changed (in WA and CO).
After smoking pot for a while, I have come to two conclusions.
1. Smoking pot has no adverse affects and is a harmless drug.
2. The moon is trying to kill us!
Cool. Buy your smoke and Screaming Yellow Zonkers from the same machine
The vending machines are intended for inventory control and are behind the counter so any goober can work the counter and not 'stiff' the customer, or smoke up the inventory. "Uhm, you like, put your credit card in here, dude, and uhm, and then, uhm, the thing gives you some, like, uhm, gnarley kush knotts"
In the eventual future whereas weed is legal for recreational use and home cultivation is also approved, the need or motivation for anyone to steal weed or those vending machines will erode and become only a crime out of mischief as the high dollar value of weed will also erode since errey body gots some khronic gawduns in they back yard, don’t cha know.
Yeah, I've known some stoners.
I worked a project a few years ago for a major cigarette manufacturer and they were already prepared with the ability to grade and had packaging/manufacturing/processing done.