When California implemented their legalized recreational cannabis program, one thing that wasn’t worked out was the possibility of home delivery service. The convenience factor of having a wide variety of lab-tested cannabis products brought to your home, allowing you to forgo leaving the damn house, is one of the marvels of our modern age, and having experienced such a marvel here in Portland via Green Box, I can speak to the thrill and convenience of having someone drive to your place and bring you cannabis. At times, the outside world is highly overrated.
More importantly, as a decade-plus-long caregiver through the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), I can attest that not everyone who uses weed delivery services does so for the sake of convenience. I’ve had patients for whom leaving their bed, much less their house, is a major undertaking—or may simply be impossible altogether. There already exist channels to get pharmaceutical medications to patients’ homes, so why not cannabis medicine, too?
Last week, California became the first and only state to legalize cannabis deliveries statewide, regardless of municipalities having laws on the books saying otherwise. In a state the size of California, this is beneficial for not only homebound or limited mobility medical cannabis patients, but for those for whom a trip to the dispensary may be an hour’s drive or more each way.
As Rolling Stone reports, the rules involving home delivery were passed on January 16, and allow both dispensaries and “more than 100 state-licensed ‘non-storefront’ delivery companies and their customers in so-called pot ‘deserts.'”
The rules are straightforward and common-sense—per the Eureka Times-Standard , delivery vehicles may only carry a maximum of $5,000 worth of cannabis at any time, and must be free of any markings which indicate they’re transporting weed “to reduce the risk” of “theft or other crime.” (This makes sense. I’m hard-pressed to imagine anyone arguing that it would be better to have a vehicle plastered in neon green cannabis leaves and “WEED DELIVERY” emblazened upon it.)
Officials believe this will also help curtail the illicit cannabis marketplace, as those living in aforementioned “pot deserts” have relied on pot dealers who make house calls, AKA any pot dealer ever. No word yet if delivery by drone is forthcoming, so if you think you see anything like that, you’re probably stoned. (by Josh Jardine)
