California companies deliver pot to your doorstep

[SeniorBuzz]

Some say this is the way of the future, others want it banned.

As communities across California crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries, a new business model has emerged: companies that will deliver pot directly to your doorstep.

At a one-room packaging facility east of San Francisco, a worker in latex gloves pulls four brilliant green pot buds from a vacuum-sealed bag. She delicately places them on a small scale as her boss looks on.

He's a local real estate developer who publicly uses the assumed name of Matthew Lawrence for his marijuana business. He says the pot will be shipped to customers around the state in unmarked packages.

"During the business week, any orders placed by 1 p.m. get there by midday the next day via courier," Lawrence says.

This might seem like an illegal drug den — but so far, California's medical marijuana laws don't cover this type of operation. And delivery is booming amid a backlash against storefront dispensaries. This week, hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles face a deadline to close or risk criminal charges. And hundreds of other cities and towns in California have banned dispensaries altogether.

Delivery services are a growing alternative to brick-and-mortar storefronts in many of the states that have legalized medical marijuana, Lawrence says

Allen St. Pierre with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says, "As these Main Street dispensaries raise the ire of law enforcement [and] local politicians, delivering patient-to-patient or business-to-patient would appear to be the trend that is emerging around the United States."

Dispensary Owners Worry About Safety

Some longtime medical marijuana advocates worry that a legal free-for-all in delivery services is allowing unsavory elements to enter the trade.

"We've had a lot of problems with, I call it the wing-nut crowd who look at this as a money-making operation," says Lynette Shaw, who runs one of the state's oldest medical marijuana dispensaries in the Marin County town of Fairfax.

That town tightly controls Shaw's operations, but those rules don't cover delivery services based outside the area. She says they're trying to muscle in on her business. So she's asking local authorities to allow her storefront to make home deliveries in order to compete.

"I want to make sure my patients are safe — and when you call someone to your home, that you have someone whose background is researched, that they're licensed and regulated," Shaw says.

That's one reason Halem of the Artists' Collective in Los Angeles wants city officials to regulate the delivery trade. He says he's asked but gotten no response.

"We would welcome oversight because we know that we qualify, and we know that we have nothing to be afraid of," he says.

But at this point, says Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, the city's new medical marijuana regulations don't address delivery services.

"This was never a factor in our debate," Zine says.

Zine says that the move to restrict dispensaries was driven by complaints from community groups and law enforcement, and that so far there haven't been many complaints about delivery services.

"Who's going to complain? The person who's receiving [the marijuana] is not going to complain. The person who's delivering is not going to complain. The neighbor is not going to complain because they don't know what's going on," Zine says.

That could be changing. This week, at least one Los Angeles City Council member called for an investigation and possible emergency measures against pot-delivery services. Action by the council is pending.

There is a lot more to this story, here.