Cannabis legalization is bringing us to unknown territories and never before seen changes when it comes to the technology we use to produce, sell, advertise and consume. As cannabis use becomes increasingly accepted nationwide, more entrepreneurs are investing in legitimate technology companies that help get people what they want – and more importantly, help patients get the medicine they need. We aren’t going to go into detail about specific tech companies in this article, so look for that in an upcoming article. This time around, we will be focusing on how certain examples of technology companies are impacting the legal cannabis industry as a whole.
For starters, the act of finding weed on the black market has been notoriously dangerous and sketchy. Even if you manage to find an honest connection that is on time and you are able to dodge being arrested for a plant, you can’t always be sure what you’re getting – even from the best dealers. Legalization has almost entirely put a stop to the dangers of acquiring cannabis, while protecting citizens in the process and freeing up police to pursue real crimes with real victims. This is something that cannabis prohibition was unable to do for over seventy-five years.
Before legalization, you had to call your weed person, wait forever, pony up likely more than it’s worth, and wait forever. Did we mention wait forever? Along with legalization, innovative companies help you find cannabis related businesses and services with ease. This changes that acquisition process entirely. These types of apps and services also make it easy to find cannabis related doctors if you need a medical card, or find attorneys in your area if you need legal advice. These services will also help you find sources for extract and pretty much anything else weed related you could think of.
Due to the cash-only nature of most dispensaries and retail cannabis locations, these spots have become notoriously vulnerable to theft. Several tech companies have introduced solutions to these problems, like in-store kiosks to digital tracking methods that have the capability to monitor products from seed to sale. Security systems are now being tailor made for cannabis retail locations, which will only continue to improve.
Obviously, all this growth in cannabis tech will only help the legal cannabis industry to continue its explosive growth. Economic analysts and industry experts estimate that the legal cannabis brought in about $5.4 billion in 2015. That figure will only increase annually, with analysts predicting upwards of $22 billion in legal cannabis revenue by 2020.
