[Vision2020] Dawn of the Marijuana Vending Machine

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of Bloomberg Businessweek at:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-09/medbox-dawn-of-the-marijuana-vending-machine
  
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Medbox: Dawn of the Marijuana Vending Machine
“We are in the right place at the right time,” says Bruce Bedrick, a 44-year-old chiropractor, occasional pot user, and chief executive officer of Medbox (MDBX), maker of one of the world’s first marijuana vending machines. “We are planning to literally dominate the industry.”

The two investors Bedrick is addressing at the offices of NewGate Capital Partners in Winter Park, Fla., smile politely. NewGate partner Joe Alvarez Jr. says he likes Medbox’s product but has concerns about the company’s roller coaster stock, which zoomed from about $3 a share to $215 in November and has recently bounced between $20 and $30. Alvarez doesn’t use the phrase “pump-and-dump,” but it hangs there like a cloud of smoke. Either way, Bedrick takes umbrage. “This is all crazy talk,” he nearly shouts. “Wall Street plays games with our stock all the time. We’re a retailer’s wet dream. We’re the leading player in an industry that’s ready to explode.” Alvarez says he meant no offense.

Medbox’s core product resembles a Redbox DVD dispenser, only it’s black, refrigerated, and armored. Bedrick avoids the term vending machine because you can’t just saunter up to a Medbox, put in a few bills, and walk away with a stash of weed. The devices sit behind sales counters at state-licensed marijuana dispensaries. Biometric technology identifies the fingerprints of patients carrying state-issued medical marijuana cards. Clerks hand over plastic vials of cannabis leaf or, depending on the machine, cannabis-infused brownies, lozenges, or other “medibles.” A database tracks everything so that patients can’t buy more than their legal allotment, clerks can’t pilfer the merch, and states can collect taxes.

It’s a conventional business model—which is the point. Medbox’s $50,000 machines are intended to allay fears that pot means “druggies standing on street corners and grabbing little kids and stuffing drugs down their throats,” Bedrick says. As he sees it, for marijuana to become as mainstream as Miller Lite it needs to endure the same PowerPoints and conference calls as other businesses. “If you’re going to allow people to have marijuana, then let’s organize it, regulate it, tax it,” Bedrick says. “It has to work for everybody.” He adds, “I’m a Libra—always seeking balance.”

After the meeting, he steers his rented Chrysler into downtown Winter Park for lunch. He parks curbside on busy Park Avenue and starts to strip off his charcoal suit, blue dress shirt, and banana-yellow tie. Shoppers strolling past don’t seem to notice the hairy-chested man in boxer shorts jabbering on his phone. Bedrick doesn’t care. He slips into jeans and a T-shirt. “I’m very thankful for everything that has happened to me,” he says, “but I never thought I’d be wearing a suit.”

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Legalize it!  Regulate it!  Tax it!



Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
 

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