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Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

nytimes.com

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Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#11

Post by pilom »

Drakim wrote: post #4

What is the legality of marijuana on the federal level in the US? I was under the impression that even if marijuana is legal on a state level you can still get in trouble for it.

It is indeed illegal on the federal level. Currently everyone is just an executive order away from crack down on all of it. The guidance that the Obama Administration has been using is not to enforce the law in states where it has been legalized (though they have been cracking down on cases where dispensaries open within 1000 ft of a school). That said, a new president could do whatever they wanted and a crackdown would likely result in an eventual supreme court case that the states would probably lose based on current precedent.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#12

Post by joefkelley »

Drakim wrote: post #4

What is the legality of marijuana on the federal level in the US? I was under the impression that even if marijuana is legal on a state level you can still get in trouble for it.

Yes, it's still very much illegal federally. It's still a Schedule I controlled substance. The federal banking system / IRS refuses to interact with marijuana businesses, the postal service won't mail ads for it, the DEA continues to raid growers, etc, etc.

Edit: as others have pointed out, I was incorrect in lumping in the IRS with the rest of the federal banking system. The IRS does indeed accept money from marijuana businesses. There are other parts of the federal banking system that are not so "accepting", for instance: http://www.denverpost.com/2016/01/05/judge-tosses-denver-mar...

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#13

Post by Roboprog »

eunoia wrote: post #7
kbenson wrote: post #2

This makes sense. As a big player in enterprise, Microsoft is recognizing that there's a new industry that's vastly under served.

Massively underserved. I live in Denver and have friends with ownership stakes in local dispensaries. The quality of their software solutions (mainly POS/Compliance) is laughable. Edit: This ( http://www.mjfreeway.com/ ) is the defacto standard. I kid you not it went down for 2 weeks ~a year ago after scheduled maintenance went wrong. At the time it had ~50% market share, this left dispensaries around the country doi…

Hmm. I wonder how dispensaries are different than any other retail / pharmacy operation?

Can they treat the product like cold/allergy pills that have to be watched, or does there have to be legal information specific to each "SKU"/item-type???

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#16

Post by kbenson »

tacos wrote: post #5
godzillabrennus wrote: post #3

Good. Maybe they can open a cafe on their campus to sell recreational versions so their people can test their tech and try the product. It'd make many developers I know want to work for Microsoft.

The biggest pothead team at Microsoft was the Internet Explorer guys. So if you want another 20 years of calculating bounding rectangles incorrectly, by all means let's get the rest of the company baked.

I would really like to believe you worked on this team at that time, and that's where you got your username from. :)

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#17

Post by Roboprog »

tacos wrote: post #5
godzillabrennus wrote: post #3

Good. Maybe they can open a cafe on their campus to sell recreational versions so their people can test their tech and try the product. It'd make many developers I know want to work for Microsoft.

The biggest pothead team at Microsoft was the Internet Explorer guys. So if you want another 20 years of calculating bounding rectangles incorrectly, by all means let's get the rest of the company baked.

Sorry you got voted down. I thought it was funny, even if it is (or isn't?) complete fiction.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#18

Post by vegabook »

Wow Microsoft is tickin' all the cool boxes under Nadella. Never seen such a radical, and it seems, effective, corpo image turnaround. Open source? Check. Ubuntu on Windows? Check. Contribute to BSD? Check. Progressive on pot? Check. Defeat the bots? Check. Gates on chickens? Check. This company is sick/dope/ice cold cool.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#19

Post by encoderer »

pilom wrote: post #11
Drakim wrote: post #4

What is the legality of marijuana on the federal level in the US? I was under the impression that even if marijuana is legal on a state level you can still get in trouble for it.

It is indeed illegal on the federal level. Currently everyone is just an executive order away from crack down on all of it. The guidance that the Obama Administration has been using is not to enforce the law in states where it has been legalized (though they have been cracking down on cases where dispensaries open within 1000 ft of a school). That said, a new president could do whatever they wanted and a crackdown wo…

I think you overstate the ease with which you go about putting toothpaste back into the tube.

Re: Microsoft is the first big company to say it's serving the legal marijuana trade

#20

Post by tlrobinson »

joefkelley wrote: post #12
Drakim wrote: post #4

What is the legality of marijuana on the federal level in the US? I was under the impression that even if marijuana is legal on a state level you can still get in trouble for it.

Yes, it's still very much illegal federally. It's still a Schedule I controlled substance. The federal banking system / IRS refuses to interact with marijuana businesses, the postal service won't mail ads for it, the DEA continues to raid growers, etc, etc. Edit: as others have pointed out, I was incorrect in lumping in the IRS with the rest of the federal banking system. The IRS does indeed accept money from marijua…

> IRS refuses to interact with marijuana businesses

What does that mean? Surely the IRS still wants their money? It would seem to put the IRS and marijuana businesses in an awkward position...

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