These Guys Want to Deliver Weed to Your Door

Need your weed fix, but leaving the house and driving to a dispensary is just too much hassle? Believe it or not, there’s an app for that.

A newly developed application called Canary is set to make marijuana delivery as easy as ordering a pizza. Instead of a 30-minute delivery guarantee, Canary serves as a middleman of sorts – placing customers just a few clicks away from getting medical-grade cannabis delivered straight to your doorstep. One of Canary’s catchphrases sums it up perfectly: “Stay home, we’ve got you covered.”

Josiah Tullis and Megh Vakharia, both University of Washington students, developed Canary so that medical marijuana patients could order pot and have it delivered to their door.

“The easiest way we say it is that it’s Uber for marijuana,” Tullis said in an interview.

How Canary Works

• Canary will work with local dispensaries and also hire their own local delivery drivers. Each driver will have to be medical-marijuana cardholders and also undergo background checks.
• When using the Canary app, patients will need to submit a picture of their current medical marijuana card when signing up. At the time of delivery, they will show their card again for verification purposes.
• The app will provide 24/7 service, as long as a local dispensary is open.
• Delivery is expected to be within one hour.
• A 10 to 25 percent surcharge will be added to the cost of marijuana purchase for each patient per delivery.
• Payment for the deliveries is initially expected to be cash-only. This is because most banks are refusing to do business with the marijuana industry for fear of violating federal money-laundering laws.

The Canary app has not yet launched, as Tullis and Vakharia are still working out the legal details. The founders want to make sure Canary is operating as a legal middleman for both their customers and the dispensaries they work with before it is available for download.

Canary is expected to launch in Seattle next month and quickly expand to Colorado and California. Colorado is a great place for Canary to do business, as the state made history in January by opening the world’s first legally licensed recreational marijuana stores.

Big Business and Similar Apps

Just 24 hours after Colorado passed its recreational weed laws, the state’s retail marijuana shops surpassed an astounding $1 million in sales. High demand equals high revenue, so home delivery apps bring in big money for businesses – even alcohol. Currently, 18 states allow the delivery of beer, wine and liquor with no restrictions. Popular alcohol delivery apps include the Colorado-based Alcohome, while Drizly delivers to drinkers in Boston, New York, and Illinois. Vulu delivers spirits to thirsty Chicagoans and BrewDrop launched last month in Austin, Texas.

Also Read: New Marijuana Breathalyzer Could Make Roads Safer