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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

#91

Post by lbn »

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…

Is this a problem due to not being able to buy physical/cloud infrastructure or developers with cannabis money or something else?

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

#92

Post by cinquemb »

delbel wrote: post #57

The system Oregon (and Colorado) uses for recreational is called METRC and is made by a company called Franwell. When I was at training, the spokes person actually asked for hands raised if anyone knew what a REST API was. Their seed-to-sale tracking system (required by law in Oregon), if used for food (just for example) would be able to tell you what corn field, and what corn plant, in Iowa, when and what fertilizer…

… Franwell … if used for food (just for example) would be able to tell you what corn field, and what corn plant … RFID tags

I wonder if people set up these logistics/telematics companies so they can make trades on all the data they are collecting before anyone else can (I guess insurance companies would want to do this, but that's less fun of a tangent)?

Also anyone out there using any cheap sensors arrays w/ beamforming techniques and picking up on random RFID tags?

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

#93

Post by simonswords82 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #77
vegabook wrote: post #18

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.

Ads delivered to your computer by Windows? Check. I'd rather have the old Microsoft back. :/

Fuck that. The Microsoft under Ballmer was a car crash. I was running a .Net development house at the time and we seriously considered switching tech stack off the back of Microsoft's attitude to everytihng.

Now I couldn't be happier we stuck by them.

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

#94

Post by CJKinni »

kafkaesq wrote: post #80
dragonwriter wrote: post #58

There is no legal marijuana trade in the US, as all marijuana trade is criminal under federal law, and it's generally a crime to knowingly profit from a crime (and, since drug offenses are covered in RICO, it's another crime to use any profits tired to them in the operation of any business engaged in interstate commerce.) Microsoft may be keeping distant enough not to worry (though perhaps not given their formal part…

There is no legal marijuana trade in the US, You mean interstate trade, of course.

Tell that to Roscoe Filburn.

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

#95

Post by [deleted] »

kafkaesq wrote: post #80
dragonwriter wrote: post #58

There is no legal marijuana trade in the US, as all marijuana trade is criminal under federal law, and it's generally a crime to knowingly profit from a crime (and, since drug offenses are covered in RICO, it's another crime to use any profits tired to them in the operation of any business engaged in interstate commerce.) Microsoft may be keeping distant enough not to worry (though perhaps not given their formal part…

There is no legal marijuana trade in the US, You mean interstate trade, of course.

[deleted]

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

#96

Post by swamp40 »

tmm wrote: post #35
blackguardx wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IRS explicitly states that you need to declare bribes and income from illegal activities [1] "Illegal activities. Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, line 21, or on Schedule C or Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity." [1] https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch12.html

Also from stolen goods, unless you return them in the same year: "If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner."

I would have bet money that was a joke. But no.

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

#97

Post by aphextron »

chiph wrote: post #71
eunoia wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A friend of a friend was hired as a CFO at a dispensary, and pretty much had to create an entire accounting system from scratch. Cash management consisted of employees driving around to the store and collecting the money, as the armored car firms wouldn't accept their business. So he set up a subsidiary that went out and bought some armored cars and was able to safely transport the money, staffed with former military…

Why is that? Even software firms don't want to deal with weed?

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

#98

Post by aphextron »

13of40 wrote: post #32
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.

There's a weed store about 4 blocks from the Lincoln Square and City Center (Microsoft) buildings in Bellevue. Or so I've heard.

There's a weed store about 4 blocks from any given point in Washington state.

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

#99

Post by tn13 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #58

There is no legal marijuana trade in the US, as all marijuana trade is criminal under federal law, and it's generally a crime to knowingly profit from a crime (and, since drug offenses are covered in RICO, it's another crime to use any profits tired to them in the operation of any business engaged in interstate commerce.) Microsoft may be keeping distant enough not to worry (though perhaps not given their formal part…

> on the willingness of the federal government to extend the informal prosecutorial tolerance of in-state activities related to marijuana that comply with state laws in states which have adopted some form of state legalization to larger interstate enterprises

The only think that is allowed Federal government to terrorist people in the name of Marijuana is it is still not a common knowledge that the laws about Marijuana are absurd. Federal government taking on MS might be a good thing for society in general.

One big issue with the "war of drugs" is that it is very easy to benefit by helping the illegal drug dealers that fighting against the regulation. If Uber can wage war on different government for de-regulating taxi business why cant a wannabe hemp company do the same? It is not happening but MS getting into this is a good sign.

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

#100

Post by jeromegv »

aphextron wrote: post #97
chiph wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of a friend was hired as a CFO at a dispensary, and pretty much had to create an entire accounting system from scratch. Cash management consisted of employees driving around to the store and collecting the money, as the armored car firms wouldn't accept their business. So he set up a subsidiary that went out and bought some armored cars and was able to safely transport the money, staffed with former military…

Why is that? Even software firms don't want to deal with weed?

Not so much the software companies, it's the payment processing companies that are risk-averse.
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