In certain parts of America right now, the marijuana debate has reached a certain fever pitch of frustration, innovation and now investment.  Snoop Dogg, the American rapper, has invested money in a marijuana delivery service in San Francisco called Eaze which claims to be the “Uber” of cannabis delivery services.  Virgin founder and CEO Sir Richard Branson has now backed another similar service called Sidecar, which just closed another $15 million on top of a previous round of $20 million.

This is clearly a hot space in the US market – combining IT trends with a pressing if not exploding need.

The reason?

Drugged driving laws in the U.S. are pernicious and highly worrying to legalization advocates because they use the logic of alcohol tests – specifically they measure the level of THC in a person’s blood, saliva, or urine.  The problem is, however that most medical users have a higher amount than is “legal” in their systems all the time from regular use – whether they have ingested marijuana in the last few hours or not.  In fact this whole issue has brought up many unsolved and to date unsolvable problems in the land of the car when pot is suddenly made legal.

The hidden issue behind the hoopla about stoned drivers, however, is that the community most affected by draconian “zero tolerance” driving provisions – medical users – commonly cannot drive because they cannot afford or drive a car.

This creates a huge need for car-based delivery services in every state where marijuana is now legal.  It is also a contentious issue in some jurisdictions, even within the same state.  For example, in LA, the app-based marijuana delivery firm Nestdrop, has run afoul of the local City Attorney who claims this idea violates a city ordinance banning the same.  The company has engaged in an online crowd sourced legal defence as well as a dialogue with city officials to plead their case.

The attitude in San Francisco, however, clearly has created the environment for two competing and well funded pot delivery firms to start to compete – clearly with national business in mind.  In states where medical marijuana is legalizing, particularly in highly restricted states like Minnesota and New York, the idea of a delivery service not only makes sense – it appears to meet two pressing needs.  Getting medicine to those who need it, and keeping stoned drivers off the road.