Could Drones Be Used to Deliver Medical Marijuana?
California medical marijuana patients could soon have the availability of using a bitcoin account to order weed and then have it piloted in, special delivery, to a designated location via drone.
The San Francisco-based cannabis delivery app, Trees, recently announced that it was working on receiving approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to expand its current delivery model to include the use of drone technology when providing Bay area tokers with access to “the finest cannabis in the world.”
Representatives of the company recently told the International Business Journal that drone deliveries are still in the process of being worked out, since the legalities surrounding such a unique method for getting smoke into the hands of patients remains somewhat ambiguous.
"We're not sure when we'll be launching yet," said a spokesperson for Trees. "We are based in San Francisco and the legal situation here is not clear yet."
While these innovators in weed distribution wait for federal regulators to clarify whether hurling medical marijuana through California airspace can be done without causing a drug enforcement shakedown, Trees has reportedly already signed on to work with a drone company to fine tune this approach.
Marshall Hayner, one of the company’s founders, recently told the Coin Telegraph that Trees plans to take the idea nationwide once it receives federal clearance.
“We are currently working on drone logistics and as soon as the FAA passes the appropriate legislation we will have fleets in every state,” he said.
While Trees delivers medical marijuana, the company itself is not a dispensary. Instead, it partners with cannabis collectives in order to distribute medical marijuana without forcing growers to accept low-ball deals from area dispensaries.
“We believe that through this app we can crowd source the best cannabis, versus funneling the best growers through an arduous painful process at a dispensary whose goal is to give them as little money as possible,” Hayner said.
If the concept of drone delivery were met with approval, which is highly unlikely given the nature of all things federal in relation to marijuana, Trees customers would use the app to have a variety of six cannabis packages, ranging from around $60 to $150, delivered to their home. Right now, this service is available with the use of actual delivery drivers.
Another company called Eaze, which has been labeled the Uber of medical marijuana, has apparently been working on the drone delivery method for at least the past year. In a 2014 article in SFGate, Eaze founder Keith McCarty said that he had raised $1.5 million to develop this idea… but so far, drone deliveries remain a pipe dream until federal aviation officials finally decide to give the cannabis industry a green light.