cannabis kiosks
A financial high
As marijuana legalisation continues to spread in the United States, the
marijuana kiosk is helping to simplify and secure the sales process
By Richard Slawsky, contributor
Just two years into the United State’s experiment in the
legalisation of marijuana for recreational use, Colorado
businesses are on track see more than $1.3 billion in
revenue from the sale of weed and related products. That’s
a whopping 30% higher than the $1 billion those businesses
took in last year.
Those results are similar to what’s being seen in
Washington – the second state to go 420-friendly.
Washington reached the $1 billion mark in July 2016, just
12 months after the first legal sale of recreational pot. And
that growth is sure to continue, especially as more and
more states hop aboard the cannabis train. But as with
any business, a growing customer base brings with it an
opportunity to serve those customers with technology.
Cannabis and kiosks are proving to be a perfect match. Mason, was the first known on-the-job death at a licensed
marijuana business in Colorado. The same month, a medical
marijuana dispensary owner in the Los Angeles area
survived a shoot-out with two would-be robbers wearing
masks and armoured vests. The owner escaped unharmed,
although the robbers were wounded when the owner fired
his own weapon.
In addition to the outside threat, dispensary owners also
face the potential of internal theft. Despite the amount of
money flowing into the pot industry, dispensary workers
start at or near the minimum wage. Handling thousands of
dollars a day while taking home $10-12 an hour is likely to
prove to be an overwhelming temptation for some seeking
to supplement their income. And that’s where the kiosk
industry can help.
Growing like a weed
With the results of November’s election, the use of both
recreational and medicinal marijuana has been entirely
legalised in eight states, with medical marijuana legal in 28
states. While the approach of the new administration in
regards to legalised marijuana remains to be seen, it’s likely
that the movement has passed the point of no return. Still,
there are some sticky issues associated with the sale of
marijuana. First and foremost is that despite it being legal at
the state level, federal law still considers marijuana to be a
Schedule 1 drug, putting it on the same level as heroin, LSD
and ecstasy.
Since federal law prohibits financial institutions from
processing payments from the sale of a Schedule 1 drug,
for the most part the cannabis industry is an all-cash affair.
Credit and debit card transactions just aren’t allowed.
Unfortunately, conducting business on an all-cash basis
is fraught with risk. First and foremost is that having large
amounts of cash on the premises makes a marijuana
business a prime target for a robbery.
In June 2016, for example, a security guard at a suburban
Denver dispensary was shot and killed during a robbery
attempt. The killing of the guard, former Marine Travis A secure solution
Fresno, California-based Cannabis Cash Solutions, for
example, is providing cash-handling kiosks for marijuana
dispensaries that el iminate the need for employees to
handle money. In addition, the devices store the cash in
a secure vault until pickup by a manager or an armoured
car service. “What we’re doing with the kiosks is taking the
money straight from the customer’s hands and putting
it right into the vaults in our kiosks,” said Cannabis Cash
Solutions CEO Andrew Savala. “The marijuana business
doesn’t touch the cash at all.”
With Cannabis Cash Solutions kiosks, customers come up
to the dispensary counter and interact with the dispensary’s
‘budtender,’ who explains the different product choices
available. Once the customer has made their choice the
budtender directs them to the counter-mounted kiosk,
where they insert their cash payment into a bill acceptor and
receive their change. The kiosk recycles the cash inserted
for use as change, minimising the need for replenishing the
change fund. “Customers are still able to have that one-one-
one interaction with the budtender,” Savala added. “The
budtender can still spend time with them answering the
customer’s questions, they just don’t handle the cash.” n
12 KIOSK solutions