Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jul 2016
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Page: 3
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Mike Strobel

VENDING MACHINES THE NEW POT PUSHERS

Drug stores, the LCBO and "medical" dispensaries are scrambling to 
get a piece of the coming pot pie - but we're forgetting one obvious, 
time-tested sales venue. Vending machines. Imagine. Press "select" 
for kush, skunk, granddaddy purple, diesel or Acapulco gold, as if 
you're are choosing a Pepsi or a Wunderbar.

Simple. Quick. Low overhead. Half-baked? No way, dude.

Jamaica, where ganja and Bob Marley are gods, is considering pot 
dispensing machines at airports and harbours, since legalizing 
possession of up to two ounces last year. Yes, airports. Arriving 
tourists would buy their stash at an automatic kiosk before heading 
to the resort - with a healthy cut going into tax coffers.

If you spot your pilot in line, you may wish to consider another 
airline for the return trip.

But, otherwise, safeguards would keep your kids and other miscreant 
from making a withdrawal. You'd need a permit from customs before 
using the vending machines.

Tourists either show their "medical" marijuana script or "if they 
don't have a prescription, then they can do what we call 
'self-declare' and this will allow them to have the two ounces while 
they are here," Cannabis Licensing Authority chairman Hyacinth 
Lightbourne tells the Gleaner newspaper.

I suspect there will be a whole lot of self-declarin' going on.

Permit in hand, you would proceed to a machine much like an ATM, but 
which dispenses an assortment of the best herbs Jamaica has to offer.

If they're smart, they'll add products such as potato chips, breath 
mints and condoms. Might as well maximize the bonanza legal weed will bring.

The Jamaicans can look north to B.C., that other Lotusland, for tips 
on weed vending machines. A handful of them have sprouted at 
Vancouver dispensaries in the past year. They require a card and PIN, 
just like a bank machine, to thwart kiddies.

What about Toronto? Can a city that still gives pot raids sexy names 
like Project Claudia ever progress to selling the stuff out of 
machines like bags of peanuts and sticks of gum?

I do not indulge in the evil reefer, but I would install the first 
vending machine right outside the door to council chambers at City 
Hall. Mellow out those dudes, dudettes and duds.

Then I'd put one at the end of my street near Dundas Square, to chase 
out the pushers and related crooks, which, after all, is a key reason 
to legalize pot.

I can't wait for the first malfunction, though. You think a Coke 
lover gets pissed if the machine steals his loonie? Wait'll you see a 
pothead denied.

When the charade of "medical" marijuana finally ends, and folks can 
toke up for the sole purpose of getting high, expect vending machines 
to become widespread.

Who knows, in 20 years there might even be coke machines, and I don't 
mean cola. Hopefully not. Freedom has its limits.

Meantime, vending machines already sell everything from cupcakes in 
New York to hot pizza and gold ingots in Germany to live crabs in 
China. Those health nut Russians had one that gave you subway tokens 
in return for doing 30 squats. Now, weed. Come to think of it, with 
the dramatic shifts in how you buy and read your Sun, maybe I've 
stumbled on a clever new use for the iconic newspaper box. Remind me 
to call circulation.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom