Senate approves bill to ban cannabis vending machines in Washington

The cannabis community thrives on perfecting and improving
the way that medical cannabis patients receive their medicine, but sadly for
Washington State, the ease of vending machine use may have just ended before it
got a chance to begin. A single Senate bill was passed last month that would
effectively ban cannabis vending machines in the state.

Just last month, CULTURE
 published a story with the exciting news
celebrating the arrival of the ZaZZZ cannabis vending machine (which originates
from a company in Arizona) at a Seattle access point called Seattle Caregivers.
The revolutionary idea offers convenience of accessing standard cannabis
medicine for patients, while still offering the supervision of an employee and
security within an access point to ensure safety for all—and all it takes is the
presence of a budtender and a simple swipe of a patient’s ID and medical
cannabis card. The machine features unique technology with climate-control to
keep the products fresh, which allows for the storage of cannabis flowers and
edibles, as well as various other products.

However, it seems that the Washington State Senate had
different intentions for the new arrival of the machine. On Monday, March 2, the
Senate passed SB-5903 which forbids the sale of cannabis through convenient
means, which includes both vending machines as well as drive-thrus. The bill
was passed with an overwhelming and unanimous 47-0 vote.

Senator Barbara Bailey, who represents Oak Harbor and is the
prime sponsor behind SB-5903, stated that the bill is aimed towards keeping
cannabis edibles from being supplied in parks, local sports games and coffee
shop drive-throughs, according to the Bellingham
Herald. “This is a common-sense bill that addresses a loophole in the
state’s marijuana laws. Part of making the recreational-marijuana market work
is keeping tight regulations on the sale and distribution and ensuring responsible
use. We don’t sell alcohol from drive-thrus and we should treat marijuana the
same way,” Senator Bailey stated.

As of the beginning of February, Seattle’s single machine
was dwarfed by an estimated 18 operating between Arizona and Colorado, with plans
to introduce five more machines in Washington. Expansion plans have even
recently been announced to extend into Southern California as well.

As of this writing, there’s no news yet when the House will
look at the bill, but if the recent unanimous vote on vending machines by the
Senate is any predilection, Washington may be looking at a permanent cannabis
vending machine ban in the near future.