Marijuana delivery in Washington, Colorado sit in legal grey area

Washington is one of two states that has legalized the sale of marijuana for recreational use, the other being Colorado. In both places, transactions need to take place in a licensed retail shop that sells licensed products. While this industry has been booming, it is ripe for expansion.

According to the Associated Press, the growing demand had created an opportunity for additional business ventures from these retailers, like online sales and delivery. While this is something that could easily be started for a shop that sells other merchandise like clothes or home goods, marijuana is a little different. This is because when the bill was crafted it did not take doorstep delivery into account.

Currently, delivering pot, even if it is sold through a legal shop, is considered a felony. However, this is only the case for recreational shops, as medical marijuana deliveries have been legal for several years.

This hasn't stopped shop owners from offering the service anyway. Most business owners realize how lucrative selling online or setting up a recurring delivery plan could be, and even though ideas are outpacing the law, they are trying it anyway because they do not want to leave this kind of money on the table.

Evan Cox, the confounder of Winterlife, a Seattle-based company, is one of the businesses trying this kind of delivery service. Currently, customers call a number, are put in contact with a driver who has an animal code name and a meet is set up where the transaction is completed. That sounds shady because it is on shaky legal ground. The police have commented, saying that while it is illegal, they have higher priorities.

Since launching 19 months ago, Cox currently has 50 full- and part-time employees, including 25 to 30 car and bike drivers. His company fields between 400 and 600 calls a day.

This has other benefits as well, like cutting down on crime and the sale of non-regulated marijuana. Alison Holcomb, an activist who wrote the 2012 voter initiative for legalized recreational weed use, told the news source that by legalizing delivery, the state would be able to push more people toward the legal pot market and be able to capture those tax dollars.

Another recreational drug, alcohol, has already paved the way for this type of system to take off. The laws just need to catch up with the business practices.

This shows that setting up a delivery aspect of your business is more complicated than just telling customers, "place an order and we will drop it off." While this article focused on the legalities of delivering marijuana in a state where selling it is legal, this is only the tip of iceberg, when it comes to logistics challenges.

Any company that is looking to expand operations into an area that includes order processing, warehousing and shipping would be wise to partner with a third party logistics service provider that can help ensure that all aspects of this side of business are met.