Connect with us

News

Uber Will Look at Cannabis Delivery When Federal Law Changes

Published

on

The company is already a huge name in transportation and food delivery, but soon enough, you might find yourself opening the Uber app to get your cannabis fix. The rideshare company will look into adding cannabis delivery to its services once federal regulation allows them to, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Monday in a CNBC interview.

Khosrowshahi expanded to say that Uber is interested in pursuing deliveries a high percentage of consumers want quickly and frequently, and while food, grocery, pharmacy, and alcohol are already part of that equation, cannabis holds the same potential.

The interview comes out of the recent legalization of recreational cannabis in New York and several other states. Senator Chuck Schumer (D – New York) is coming up with a bill to federally decriminalize cannabis, and while President Joe Biden opposes adult-use legalization, Schumer said the Senate would move forward regardless

The US House Judiciary Committee approved the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act. It will head to the House of Representatives, followed by the Senate.

With this recent progress and the country’s majority party change, many are hopeful in one way or another, federal cannabis laws will shift soon.

To that point, Khosrowkshahi added that Uber will focus on expanding in their currently available opportunities, namely grocery and alcohol. Uber recently acquired the alcohol delivery service Drizly, which launched a cannabis delivery company, Lantern, in May 2020. Following the acquisition, it was announced that the two entities would be separated, and Lantern would operate independent of Drizly and Uber.

“We see so much opportunity out there, and we’re going to focus on the opportunity at hand,” the CEO said regarding the company’s immediate aims with the current federal restrictions around cannabis.

Ending restrictions on cannabis at a federal level could open the doors to many, varied industries to explore that once-forbidden space. “When the road is clear for cannabis, when federal laws come into play, we’re absolutely going to take a look at it,” Khosrowshahi said.