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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:
YEA,There Gonna LOCATED in the Police Stations!
Ironically, I didn't finish the article! My mind wondered off.... However, now that I'm grinning, it would suck to see your pot get hung up after purchasing it!!! Bummer trip!!!
That's too funny!!
Inanity, not sanity nor insanity, is running rampant on this thread. Guess I'll take my munchies to the nearest candy machine that takes plastic.
But what is somebody accidentally stocks the machine with AR-15s and another psychotic liberal gets his hands on it? It's not worth the risk!
now that's funny
All this money and time invested into an idea that will never fly in any state. You cannot, under any circumstance distribute marijuana through vending machines. I don't care if each machine has a armed guard who runs a retina scan on you. The sales of alcohol, tobacco or marijuana under the current laws, both state and federal for alcohol and tobacco, requires these items to be sold at a licensed retail store over the counter. Vending machines have been illegal on a national level since the fed law in 2010. Even bars are banned from having cigarette vending machines because in many states it's legal for someone under 18 to enter a bar with parents, the fed law explicitly states that the exception to allow cig vending machines is in an establishment where persons under the age of 18 are not permitted under any circumstance.
The only place these vending machines may be allowed is in an actual dispensary. What a failed project from the get go.
Thats exactly why I can name 2 different bars in the area that I live in that have cigarette vending machines. Im not sure if you know what you are talking about. Legalize cannabis and sell it like alcohol!!!
and cigarette vending machines DO NOT EXIST? You have no idea!!!. Cannabis will be the leading industry in the whole economy.... by adding HEMP to the mix, you have a tyrant of an economy that will blow away the oil industry and big tobacco and pharm ... all houses COULD be built with hemp in American, not some carbon based petroleum , tobacco , timber alcoholic industry, and NONE of these things are good for you !They just kill the earth. cannabis saves it.
Letitbeknown- Federal law passed in the summer of 2010 bans all vending machines from establishments where any person under 18 can enter, this includes all bars. It's actual law, not my opinion. If a bar still has a cig vending machine they are taking great risk as the penalty is very severe, possible loss of business.
LOL No, it won't be the leading industry. Hemp unfortunately doesn't even have much of a chance of being a future industry at all in the US, marijuana certainly does not. Only a handful of states will legalize with heavy regulations and taxes, the feds have still not decided how they will react.
You are dreaming, but there is nothing wrong with that as long as you can accept the reality.
You have to be kidding Cin. Not about the law, but about Cannabis not having a chance at being an industry.
CinUSA
"Letitbeknown- Federal law passed in the summer of 2010 bans all vending machines from establishments where any person under 18 can enter, this includes all bars. It's actual law, not my opinion. If a bar still has a cig vending machine they are taking great risk as the penalty is very severe, possible loss of business."
Cin,
In Utah no Minor can enter a bar. There are cigarette machines all over in bars, that no minors can enter NOT EVEN WITH A PARENT. That is what all the other posters have been saying. Nobody said they saw a cigarette machine in a family restaurant. Why you keep arguing your point that a law was passed prohibiting the sale of cigarettes from a machine in 2010, with people who keep telling you they have seen them in bars where you have to be 21 to enter, is beyond me. Just sayin.
Utah is the exception BECAUSE those under 18 are prohibited from entering bars even while being accompanying by an adult, most places THIS IS NOT TRUE. No, other posters believe it's legal to have cigarette vending machines in bars, this is not true. The majority of states, counties and cities have banned vending machines anywhere. You don't understand the law, no surprise. Just sayin.
steve- Absolutely am not kidding. Marijuana has no chance nationally or worldwide as a legal industry. Hemp has more of a chance at being an actual legit industry but the restriction on hemp growing and the powers that are against it from becoming a legit industry, hemp really doesn't stand a chance.
I understand you are pro everything cannabis, but what you think should happen and what will happen are two totally different things.
It's still cheaper to buy on the street...they say it's Gov. tax revenue...won't work...idiots.
They haven't set the prices yet, have they?
I am pro-cannabis legalization but I don't think I can support selling it in vending machines. It would make it easier for kids to get their hands on. Plus who are you going to complain to when the machine dispenses a sub par product? If you lose a dollar or get a bad soda from a machine that isn't inside a business then you aren't getting your money back.
Between Gay Marriage and Legalizing Marijuana it slowly will change and they will become part of everyones daily life of millions of Americans, but for me personally, it will show how closer we are to being worse than Sodom and Gommorrah, and why this world needs to be brought to an end!
Did you forget the part in the bible where Jesus would annoint people with cannabis oil, as well as the references to cannabis/hemp being the tree of life? BTW the bible says NOTHING about gay marriage. Sodom and Gommorrah were not places where men just had sex with each other. The reason God smote the crap out of them was because their most common form of punishment and hazing was sodomy via rape. And didn't the townsfolk say "Give us your guest so we may know them."? Jesus also said something to the effect of "Come unto me and you shall know me." By biblical vernacular Jesus was a homosexual. I don't think he was but you can't choose to read the same words in a different way because it serves your own biggoted 7th-day adventist beliefs.
letitbeknown,
"Did you forget the part in the bible where Jesus would annoint people with cannabis oil"
Though I don't have any problem with the rest of your post, I would like to know where it is said that Jesus anointed people with cannabis oil. I don't recall ever seeing that in my Bible. Do you have some new translation that I am not aware of?
if the machine is capable of scanning an ID to determine the age/ prescription status of the smoker, then why not? Probably will need to be built like fort knox though.
or rather put the machines in a non-smoking establishment that serves alcohol.
the FEDS can't even compromise on the so called fiscal cliff, endangering ALL of America, they cannot balance a budget for their lives and can't seem to accept the fact that the 2 wars in Iraq and Afhganistan are not popular and now the middle class has to pay for these corrupt and meaningless wars........ YET they think they actually can keep controlling grass roots movements and health issues such as drugs and the prohibition of cannabis... What bunch of corrupt , idiotic, lobbyfied a**holes. Legalize cannabis see the economy get a shot of adrenaline over night.... this includes Industrial hemp farming...... I bet my life on it. what a bunch of THUGS!
no kidding lol, have you seen the price of rope lately?
now if that's the best retort you have, then you had better go back to kindergarden. Please educate yourself . Rope is for propaganders... you must be one that swallowed. lol.
not a retort tintala, and I can assure you, I don't even suck. You were spot-on until you replied to my funny.
@jrsub... put down your blunt and try to read AND understand the news article. It clearly states for MEDICINE a fingerprint will be required which will be checked against a database. It says nothing about a fingerprint being required for recreational use.
Yes. People, stoners as well, rarely read the article they are commenting on.
This story is moot because vending machines are already illegal in 99.9% of all establishments in the US since the fed ban on them in 2010. At most these machines will be in dispensaries, where the medboxes are already.
CinUSA.....You keep repeating that vending machines are illegal. I spend a great deal of time working away from home and just about every hotel I stay at has vending macines dispensing many different things....from candy to condoms. Why aren't the proprietors in jail?
johnnyt- Cigarette vending machines are illegal in almost ALL states, counties, cities and townships. Candy? Condoms? We are talking about federally regulated substances. Pay attention.
If you want me to be a mind reader, I need to tell you it ain't gonna happen. If you're making such broadbased statements as..... This story is moot because vending machines are already illegal in 99.9% of all establishments in the US since the fed ban on them in 2010.......taken directly from 38.1, and from many similar postings......you should be clear and include the rest of it. I didn't see anything at all about 'cigarette vending machnes', only 'vending machines'. So....tell me again I wasn't paying attention, it'll be just as valid the second time around as it was the first.
So...they want to sell a product that is against Federal Law in a vending machine...rriiight.
Excellent, legalize it so the government can subsidize the farmers for growing it and add new taxable jobs. (like cigarettes) The weed is going to need packaging...for tax revenue from those new jobs. (like cigarettes) The weed cigarettes will have a huge tax attached to them when purchased. (like cigarettes) This is all additional tax revenue that I am not going to have to pay. Most of those pot heads will end up with emphysema, COPD, caner, drug addition...after all it will be like smoking not filter camels cigarettes. (never seen roach with a filter) All of these pot induced diseases are going to require health care and wont hit them until about retirement age...and then their retirementw will be spent on health care. Yes, a better funded free health care system for me and my family. One the average smokers die 10 years earlier than they should have. Excellent, by getting the waste or wasted out of society by death means social secuity might be there when I want to retire and the human pool gets a little smarter. Yahooooo for all those pot head that are going to give us 10 years of their lives, pay higher taxes, fund health care, and provide richer retirement for the the rest of us who choose not to smoke.
Scientific studies released in the last few years have actually shown that cannabis smoke DOES NOT cause copd, lung cancer, emphysema. They do show however that it is a lung capacity expander and cancer fighter and killer. Overuse can cause respiratory infections though.
Original ArticleLetitbeknown. They have know for years the facts I presented above. This is the New England Journal of Medicine if you would to write the tell them you now more than they do...
Pulmonary Hazards of Smoking Marijuana as Compared with Tobacco
WE have previously shown that the habitual smoking of 3 or 4 marijuana cigarettes a day is associated with the same frequency of the symptoms of acute and chronic bronchitis and the same type and extent of epithelial damage in the central airways as the regular smoking of more than 20 tobacco cigarettes…
I've never seen that, thanks. However, smoking 3 or 4 joints a day, isn't in your everyday Mr. and Mrs. America's schedule.....I don't think. There's way too many other things that take up their time. I believe it's more than likely it's probably 3 or 4 per month for those who indulge and have a family and job.
what if~ ...( * ) ( * ) . .. ...du dU du du dah dAh DAH daH
Who are the stoners gonna yell at when they think it's not really a gram? "Dude, you shorted me dude"
Digital scales are quite cheap, small, and very accurate nowadays. But you raise the same issue as getting screwed over by a stand alone or third party soda machine. The machines would need cameras and a very good customer support staff.
It's a stupid idea only because it would put the retail clerk out of a job.
so it's ok? for babies? What if a baby gets inside the vending machine?
If someone lets their baby get far enough from them to get inside the vending machine, I don't think pot should be their number one worry in life.
Wonder if this company has taken its stock 'public'........could be a good investment.
Put it right next to the Snicker's bars and potato chips please :D
lucky basterds
Go ahead and spend your money fools. Still growin strong ;)
marijuana? what if a baby gets inside the machine? (none of the other articles looked interesting)
hey type in "morphine carnival miss magazine youtube" i just recorded it yesterday
i'm bored now! now i gotta listen to the song to! (also recorded "the population" for whom those artschool dropout wierdos might enjoy... smokin those doobie willies poof pooF and xtic and incessant mood swing disorder
i really enjoyed the new icon switch button keep up the good work
Why not have 'pot luck" dinners instead?
If there is a buck to be made from taxation, it's inevitable that sooner or later governments will turn to this as a revenue source . . . personally I think it's silly and ignorant not to -- it's a cash cow just waiting to be milked . . . alcohol and tobacco products have been killing people for centuries and nobody bats an eye lash for that. So why do some get so worked up over a little cannubis that has never -- by itself -- killed one solitary soul . . . think about it. We, as a society allow companies to make products that kill thousands of us every day. We know they do that and yet we allow them to exist. Yet everybody gets their panties in a bundle over a little weed . . . puff, puff, pass!
Agree, PTByrd, well said.
Here is a great idea, let's make the future of this country even more stupid than it is already!
The only thing likely to change if pot is universally legalized is that Drug gangs aren't getting the money and it wouldn't be costing taxpayers a fortune to put mostly otherwise harmless people in jail. Think of the benefit to society that could be acheived with all the money going for those things actually going to pay the debt or some other government function, we might be able to salvage our economy with the changes.
But.....though it would be bad news for the 'For Profit Prison' crowd, I'm afraid.
I don't understand this comment, as if the number of pot smokers is going to drastically increase and thus the entire I.Q. of the nation is going to go down. Marijuana doesn't make you nearly as stupid as being ignorant does.