BBC Story: Marijuana Vending Machines Are Popping Up In California

[snaxforgandhi]

Hola Earth People,

Marijuana vending machines in US, how cool is that? What next? Free Delivery in 30 Minutes or Your Bud Is Free?

This is a BBC wire story that ran on BBC World News..
hXXp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7212778.stm

Vending machines distributing the drug marijuana are to begin operating in the US state of California.
The machines can only be used by people who have been prescribed the drug for health reasons. Patients will have to provide a prescription, and be fingerprinted and photographed before being allowed to use the facilities.

Eleven US states allow the medicinal use of marijuana, primarily for pain relief, but it remains controversial. Vince Mehdizadeh, owner of the Herbal Nutrition Centre in Los Angeles, where one of the two first machines is based, said it would allow patients to buy extra supplies whenever needed.

Series of checks
Once the users have been photographed, fingerprinted and have shown their prescription, they will be issued with a card which can be used in the machines, he told KWTX News 10 in the US. "They'll be greeted by a security guard right there. They'll slide the card in and they'll fingerprint in to verify that it's them," he was quoted by KWTX News 10 as saying. "A camera takes a picture of them, verifying that they're actually at the machine. And they get the medicine and they move on."

The operators think that vending machines issuing prescription drugs could become a common sight in the US.

Proponents say marijauna is a valuable tool for relieving pain and stimulating appetite in the sick. However, it remains banned by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act and the US federal government does not currently recognise any legitimate medical use.

Something else, huh? It's interesting to be of age during an historical like this; we get to see first hand all of the weird legal contortions the system goes through on it's journey to more enlightened legislation. It reminds me of a story I once read about a bizarre law passed in the infancy of the automobile age that required all horseless carriage operators to stop at all 4-way junctions (remember, these were dirt roads) and set off a bunch of fireworks in the middle of the intersection so that any nearby horse traffic would know you were in the area. Like this vending machine thing, the balance between horses and autos had not yet stopped moving so there was no legal "black and white" yet.

Anyway, thought it was interesting...

~Snax (He Who Lurks)

 

[2Dog]

wow and I remember having the cig machines and them being removed even from bars...now we may have weed ones..trippy.

 

[OGKushman]

Been around for about 3 years now

 

[Hick]

the story itself is from january 2008....

 

[DonJones]

This sounds more like automated dispensing versus "vending" distribution. Many of the major hospitals have used similar systems to dispense narcotics during the shifts when the pharmacists weren't on duty.

Now, if the machines were available to the public without the security guard, fingerprint verification and photographing of the transaction, then it would qualify for "vending machine status".

Weird crap like this and calling this kind of stuff "vending machine" distribution, which in most people's minds equates with candy machines is part of the reason we see so much resistance to any liberalization legislation in Congress.

People are rightfully afraid of how far some "entrepreneur" will push it.

Good smoking.