The marijuana vending machine is in the offices of the B.C. Pain Society, a recently opened Vancouver medical marijuana dispensary on Commercial Drive, an avant-garde area of the city that is the most associated with marijuana.
The catch is you can only use the machine, which has a variety of marijuana brands (the National Post noted the vending machine has from "Cotton Candy to Lemon Haze to MK Ultra") if you are a licensed medical marijuana user, with a card to prove it. Indeed, you must have your card to even get into the area where the vending machine and various other pot products are kept.
Canada and medical marijuana production The law in Canada now says pot medical marijuana users purchase must only come from approved companies licensed by the government. The B.C. Pain Society, and other operations doing similar business in the city, are not approved but police have essentially said that when it comes to pot they have bigger fish to fry. They do not intend, they say, to raid establishments openly selling marijuana to licensed medical marijuana users from unapproved sources. B.C. Pain Society director Chuck Varabioff told media that the product they are selling comes from "confidential sources." Mr. Varabioff said that they inspect their pot and that it comes from legitimate sources, not from drug dealers. It's the first marijuana vending machine in Canada and may be the first up and running in North America. A business in Colorado announced in April that their marijuana vending machine, the Zazzz, will soon be open for use, and in California there's been marijuana vending machines developed, but it's unclear if they are available for use yet. Incidentally, before coming to work in the medical marijuana business, the B.C. Pain Society's Mr. Varabioff had a job working with, you guessed it — vending machines.