Connection Between Cannabis and Tech Start Ups

Your marijuana purchases are opening up opportunities for the tech industry. Read on below to understand how.

How Marijuana Startups Are Also Tech Startups from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

This article explores the connection between tech and weed, and how start-ups could potentially earn from the predicted rise in marijuana sales.

Weed Sales will Grow 25% in 2016

The legalization of marijuana in the United States has certainly made several people and businesses rich. In 2015, the industry was worth $5.4 billion, but it doesn’t end there: weed sales are expected to grow another 25% in 2016 according to studies conducted by research firm ArcView. The 17% increase in sales from the previous year is also due to several factors that include:

Higher cost of marijuana edibles
Colorado’s recreational marijuana sales increased 68% from 2014
Legal marijuana sales started in the fall for Oregon
It marked the first year of recreational marijuana sales for Washington state

ArcView CEO Troy Dayton predicts that there will be even more growth in 2016, with the biggest driving factor being new state laws that will allowing people to use legalized marijuana. (This is definitely great news for all of us!)

The report included sales from medical and recreational marijuana dispensaries, cannabis sales from delivery services, and individuals who are legally authorized to grow and distribute weed. So if you’ve always wanted to know where else your money is going each time you buy weed, here it is.

Just How Lucrative is Marijuana?

In fact many companies and businesses are already devoting an entire department for marijuana, which goes to show how lucrative it is.

Leslie Bocskor, a funds manager handling marijuana business for Electrum Partners, said: “We are going to see the legal cannabis industry create, tailor to and adapt technology for agriculture, plant compound extraction, security and finance”. Bocskor also added that they are expecting the legal marijuana industry to be a main source of new jobs, tax revenue, and even a top creator of wealth in the United States during the next decade.

A Budding Industry

He compares the cannabis industry to the advent of the antibiotics boom during the 1920’s. Bocskor adds, "We're only at the very beginning, essentially like being at the very beginning of Sir Alexander Fleming discovering penicillin as mold in a petri dish. That's how it started, and now how broad are antibiotics as a category of medicine? In the same sense we're just looking at the very beginning of cannabis.”

But just like with every great business opportunity, there are also risks involved for anyone who wants to benefit more greens from the rise in marijuana sales. Legal issues remain to be the biggest challenge of all, because the federal government still classifies marijuana as a dangerous drug, and distribution remains to be a federal offense.

Legal Hurdles and Growing Pains

Although marijuana tech start-ups are affected by these legal hurdles, it’s expected to change pretty soon.

The growing marijuana tech industry encompasses a wide range of services ranging from delivery to hard science.

Potbotics is a cannabis tech company that helps determine ideal marijuana strains for certain diseases by using patient brain scans.

According to Paul Warshaw, CEO and founder of Greenrush, a cannabis delivery service: “Payments for marijuana will be processed online, with the same security and ease of an Amazon checkout. Drivers and patients will be protected from the dangers presented by cash sales”

Consumers may soon be able to look forward to a time when the customer experience will be seamless and streamlined, a far cry from dodgy transactions on the street that’s all too familiar for cannabis consumers who have long been waiting for legalization.

While marijuana is still considered illegal under federal law, it may take some time until banks can finally join the business. For now, I’m certainly grateful to be living in a time where I can experience ordering my fix online and having it delivered to my door.

Marijuana Tech Startups? Yes, Please!

What do you think about the tech industry benefiting from the sales of legal marijuana? Share your thoughts with us.