San Francisco Considering Regulations on MMJ Delivery

A marijuana delivery service in San Francisco that dubs itself “the Uber of pot” is raising eyebrows among local officials concerned with the unregulated nature of such businesses.

The company, called Eaze, has generated buzz because it lets medical marijuana patients order cannabis using their smartphones and get it delivered quickly to their doorsteps.

Eaze employs a network of delivery drivers who use their own vehicles, similar to the business model employed by the car service Uber.

But officials with San Francisco’s health department – which regulates the city’s medical marijuana industry – are now considering whether to require companies like Eaze to obtain permits and perhaps even pay registration fees, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

One MMJ patient and former member of San Francisco’s Medical Marijuana Task Force told the newspaper that patients shouldn’t trust what Eaze is delivering precisely because these delivery services are unregulated. So there’s no guarantee that the product Eaze hands over to patients hasn’t been tampered with.

, San Francisco Considering Regulations on MMJ DeliveryThere’s also a question of fairness: Medical marijuana dispensaries have to navigate tons of regulatory hurdles and pay thousands of dollars for the right to operate legally, but their delivery-only counterparts do not.

Delivery services are burgeoning in markets across California and in some other states amid a lack of regulations and weak enforcement of existing laws.