California Company Seeks to Grow Pot Vending Machine Use

Medbox is looking to expand its medical marijuana vending machine to recreational users in Colorado and Washington.

January 07, 2013

NEW YORK - Prescription drug vending machine company Medbox is hoping to develop its medical marijuana vending concept for consumers in Colorado and Washington, where new state laws now allow adults to legally purchase the drug for recreational use, reports NBC News.

The Medbox vending machine requires a fingerprint scan of medical marijuana users to verify their identification, which is then linked to a prescription on file. The company, meanwhile, is actively "offering up its expertise in convenient delivery systems" for recreational users.

"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, 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."

Mehdizadeh 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, NBC News notes.

According to the company, Medbox played a key role during the Arizona dispensary lottery system and helped its consulting clients obtain 20 of the 97 total licenses granted by the Arizona Department of Health Services. The company plans to similarly offer its services in every new state that is in need of tracking and compliance of sensitive drugs like marijuana.

"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 added.

Mikhail Carpenter, spokesman for Washington??s Liquor Control Board, told the news source that Medbox has been in contact with the state but no outside vendors have been selected to assist with marijuana sales. State law says that marijuana and marijuana-infused products, according to Carpenter, 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," he told NBC News.

Growing, selling and possessing marijuana is illegal under federal law.

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