If you have been in some medical marijuana or recreational marijuana outlets, you may have seen a marijuana vending machine or two. The marijuana vending machine is a novel idea, but they are not as popular as many people would think. If you know what you want, and you know what the quality is of the marijuana in the vending machine, than I can see someone using one. But I would never use one because I like to know what I’m getting, and like to look and smell the product before I make a purchase. Plus I like to pick the budtenders brain to see what he or she knows about the product(s).
But I recognize that there are some people out there that prefer a vending machine. However, those people may not be able to use vending machines in Washington soon, as a bill was introduced and passed in Washington’s Senate that would ban marijuana vending machines. Per the Bellingham Herald:
The Washington state Senate has passed a bill to forbid selling marijuana through a drive-through window or in a vending machine.
In a 47-0 vote Monday, Senators voted to add the new restriction to the state’s legalized trade in recreational marijuana, which is restricted to sales in state-licensed stores. Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, said the bill would keep marijuana-laced edible products from being supplied in parks, football games and in coffee shop drive-through windows.
This is bad news for companies that make marijuana vending machines like MedBox. I’m not sure how many establishments in Washington have drive-thru windows, but they would obviously be affected by this bill. The bill heads to the House of Representatives now. I haven’t heard of what the chances are of it passing in the House, but considering it passed unanimously in the Senate would indicate it has a pretty good shot of passing in the House, in the same form or another.