Here’s a novel business concept: ferry medical marijuana straight to patients using drones instead of humans driving cars, thereby reducing delivery times, increasing reliability and possibly lowering long-term costs.
A medical cannabis delivery service in San Francisco recently announced that it hopes to do just that, following in the footsteps of another company – Eaze – that floated the idea last year.
But there’s a big caveat to these grand – some would say unrealistic – plans. Trees, Eaze and any other company that wants to deliver cannabis from the skies need to resolve numerous issues with the Federal Aviation Administration, which is still grappling with the idea of how to regulate drones in general.
“We have a fleet of three drones that have mechanical arms,” Trees CEO Marshall Hayner told the news site Mashable. “We tested them, we’re ready, the only thing that holds us back is the FAA.”
Still, Hayner is realistic about the chances of a marijuana-delivering drone becoming a reality. He told Mashable that the Bay Area may see “a vending machine attached to a self-driving car before we see a drone.”
