Cannabis delivery drones are on their way

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If drones can deliver fast food, they can deliver cannabis – where legal

With the cannabis industry booming in all directions in the middle of still confusing legislation and restrictions from growing faster, one of the services that face a lot of roadblocks is the delivery service. Recently, the topic of taking advantage of new technology such as drones to work for companies as delivery agents has been discussed since the current delivery experience comes with a lot of risks and complications, starting with the fact that the privately-owned fleets carry around al the cash that can’t be deposited in bank accounts.

According to Justin Costello, CEO of Bellevue-based company GRN Holdings, the cost of the current delivery systems is insane, and it is not even such an efficient method. Private fleets carry around all the orders in a car that typically has long rounds, and which ends up with a lot of cash being carried unsafely. All these facts made the delivery service, not at all cost-efficient, and that is why the company acquired a new drone cannabis delivery technology that “could eliminate 90% of costs” for delivery companies.

“We’ve been in the industry for a while and we’ve seen the inefficiencies that transportation has brought to the industry, from Sprinter vans to insurance charging three times the market rate or the fact that you have to pay people quite a bit of money to deliver [and] vans that sit in traffic for hours on end in places like Seattle or San Francisco,” said Costello. “[All] this hikes up the costs [of delivering cannabis] more than two to three times than for an average deliverable … We saw an ability to purchase this technology that’s definitely a market disruptor.”

Each drone can carry 20 to 44 to 88 pounds, and it can travel for up to ten kilometers. There is still a roadblock since it is an unregulated practice that might be punished by the federal government, so it has not been implemented yet. However, if other industries can do it, so can cannabis.