Relationships November 7, 2016
What is your favorite form of delivery? Chinese food from the authentic restaurant across town? What about printer ink via Postmates when you run out during finals week? These days, it seems like nearly anything can be delivered, so you shouldn’t be surprised that marijuana is joining the list. We’re not talking Amazon Prime status just yet, but with the help of Harborside Health Center in the Bay Area, California, it just might be on its way.
Harborside Health Center serves cannabis users in Oakland and San Jose. According to its website, the company carries an extensive array of marijuana-based products, which are delivered to Bay Area customers. For straight-up marijuana, prices range from $14 a gram to $340 for 28.4 grams, depending on the strain. They also sell marijuana-related products such as the book “The Cannabis Manifesto” by Steve DeAngelo, weed capsules called Eat Me Caps and vaping cartridges with flavors like “Blackberry Kush,” “Chem Dawg” and “Cherry Pie.”
If you’ve got the munchies, Harborside also offers plenty of edible options, including “Fire Chocolate” bars, “Ice Bars,” Large Maple Nut Caramels, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and “Orange Zest Awakening Mints” to name a few.
Now, while some might picture Harborside’s delivery system functioning like a marijuana “ice cream truck,” that’s not quite accurate. The company’s website lists specific rules and instructions that future customers must follow. First of all, patients must have a recommendation from a licensed California doctor and complete the sign-up and orientation process of the Harborside cannabis dispensary. Even after those requirements are met:
Unlike other delivery services, Harborside deliveries aren’t as easy as “click, pay and receive.” An even more pressing question, however, is whether this delivery service is good or bad news.
For those who rely on medical marijuana prescriptions to aid with health issues, delivery services like Harborside Health Center could be, quite literally, lifesavers. In fact, “Harborside was created to promote wellness by providing patients with a full spectrum of products and services, and delivery is an important part of that mission, enabling us to work with a much larger population than those able to visit one of our facilities,” says Harborside founder, Steve DeAngelo.
Compared to storefronts, marijuana delivery also seems to be less intrusive in communities and delivery makes marijuana more appealing to a variety of men and women. After all, “A stay-at-home soccer mom isn’t … going to go to the seedy neighborhood for the dispensary,” in the words of Eaze (a marijuana delivery app) CEO Keith McCarty.
These deliveries also come with their share of issues, however. In February of this year, one medical-marijuana courier was robbed of $8,000 of cannabis products at gunpoint. His wallet and car were also stolen, according to The Sacramento Bee. In December of 2015, another delivery driver was beaten, shot with a stun gun and robbed of one pound of marijuana.
Besides issues with driver safety, deliveries also exist in a gray area of the law. If recreational marijuana use is legalized, the measure will authorize delivery licenses and limit how local governments can interfere with marijuana couriers. Few other detailed rules are offered, however, and certain California jurisdictions – like Folsom and Elk Grove – explicitly ban marijuana delivery services.
Thanks to the delivery services offered by places like Harborside, men and women who need medical marijuana don’t have to leave the comfort of their own home to receive their medicine. On the other hand, delivery may not only endanger couriers, but also raise complex questions about legal rights and licensing protocol. One fact is for sure: These delivery services are serving up plenty of controversy.
