Marijuana Delivery Services on the rise

If you need some marijuana delivered, you may just be in luck.

Black market marijuana dealers have long offered door-to-door service in many parts of the country, but delivery is fast becoming part of the legitimate pot market as well. Indeed, all it takes is a quick whirl on Google to find dispensaries in California, Washington and other parts that provide cannabis by delivery.

Our marijuana dispensary lawyers know that marijuana is legal for recreational use in two states, Colorado and Washington.

However, retail stores have only opened in Colorado, leaving users in Washington with few places to get their legal marijuana. Still, medical marijuana is allowed there, and some medicinal dispensaries are advertising their delivery services openly, to everyone.

You don’t even have to be a medical marijuana patient. Some Co-Op, for example, offer 45-minute door-to-door delivery to anyone over the age of 21 who can provide photo ID. The dispensary sells various grades of marijuana for $90 a quarter ounce or $70 a quarter ounce.

This particular delivery Co-Op uses some of its proceeds to save orphaned and injured wildlife, and staff use creative animal names.

Other Washington dispensaries provide similar services. Technically what they’re doing could be a felony – state law allows possession or purchase of marijuana for any reason but requires a license to sell the drug.

It may be somewhat unlikely that police will crack down. For one thing, the buyers aren’t breaking any laws. For another, the state will soon begin licensing sellers, so law enforcement may feel it’s too early to press the rules.

Delivery companies may even help officials preserve order until retail shops open later this year. Smokers will be able to get their weed above-board, and police will know who’s providing it. Plus, the state has a long history of de-prioritizing drug crimes, especially marijuana offenses.

Washington isn’t the only place where legit delivery services are proliferating. They’ve become popular in California, too, where restrictions by local governments have made them indispensable.

California has had medical marijuana since 1996, but municipalities began cracking down on marijuana dispensaries over the last few years, with help from a recent state Supreme Court ruling. Though the state is widely expected to legalize recreational cannabis in 2014 or 2016, the restrictions have made it impossible for dispensaries to operate in a variety of places.

Delivery services have risen to take the place of many of these shuttered businesses. Police have targeted them in some places, but they’re tolerated in others. They’re especially common in Los Angeles, where recent restrictions have threatened to close hundreds of dispensaries.

There, some delivery companies have provided Los Angeles residents with regular door-to-door service for years. This particular collective’s profits go toward artists’ causes in the city.

It’s not clear what the future holds for weed delivery services, whether they’ll thrive under legalization or be stamped out by police. But for the time being, they are a significant part of the marijuana market.

The CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

More Blog Entries:

Budding Industry for Labs Testing Marijuana, December 27, 2013, Los Angeles Marijuana Lawyer Blog
Legal Possession: Should the Odor of Marijuana Amount to Probable Cause? , December 5, 2013, Los Angeles Marijuana Lawyer Blog