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Microsoft is Working On Software For The Legal Marijuana Industry (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the under-the-radar dept.

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Verge: Microsoft has announced today that it will partner with Los Angeles-based startup Kind on a system for tracking the legal growing and sale of marijuana. Microsoft will work with the startup on software services for governments tracking legal weed, with Microsoft powering the software through its Azure cloud computing service. "The goal of this relationship is to leverage each company's resources to provide State, County, and Municipalities with purpose built solutions for track and trace ('seed to sale' in the cannabis industry) technology," Kind said in a statement. As reported in The New York Times, this is a pretty significant venture for a corporation publicly journeying into the controversial industry. Growing and selling marijuana is still illegal under the federal government.

17 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Obviously... by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Waiting for the Blue Smoke of Death.

  2. Very interesting... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Will the banks stop doing business with Microsoft for fear of being accused of money laundering for the drug lords?

    1. Re:Very interesting... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, because there's no connection between Microsoft, drug lords or money laundering in this case.

      Most banks won't handle financial transactions with pot dispensaries. If Microsoft gets involved with this market segment, the banks may not deal with them either. It's the appearance of money laundering, not any actual crime of money laundering.

      Nearly all of the nation's banks refuse to take money from marijuana sales or offer basic checking or credit card services to the industry for fear they'll be shut down by federal authorities, for whom marijuana remains an illegal narcotic. The banks won't do business with growers, processors, retail shops and medical dispensaries, nor with their employees and contractors.

      http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2015/1/5/states-find-you-cant-take-legal-marijuana-money-to-the-bank

    2. Re:Very interesting... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The situation is likely to get better for pot merchants after the election in November. He won't win, but Bernie supports legalization. Hillary, as always, waffles and says we should "wait and see", but it is unlikely she will toughen policy especially if the political winds are blowing the other way. Donald has expressed support for full legalization of ALL drugs, but that was a while ago, so who knows what he supports this week. But he is unlikely to roll back state level legalization efforts. All the drug authoritarians (Cruz, Christie, etc.), that want to go back to full retard on the drug war, got wiped out in the primaries. Good riddance.

    3. Re:Very interesting... by The-Ixian · · Score: 2

      Interesting hypothesis.

      What would keep MS from creating their own bank or buying a bank?

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    4. Re:Very interesting... by SirSlud · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Banks refuse to take money from pot dispensaries - none of the money from those dispensaries are using payment services from those banks. Pot dispensaries and banks already use Microsoft operating systems and loads of other Microsoft software. There are plenty of pre-existing 2 degrees of separation of cash flow here for this development to present scenario where banks have any fear of being shut down for being tied to the sale of narcotics. No bank is going to go, "Uhoh, we'd better change swaths of our IT infrastructure now because maybe the money pot dispensaries make is spent on Microsoft services, with whom we then do business with." Nor is the federal government going to try and shut down a bank for dealing with Microsoft. If they have any issue with Microsoft's participation in this market, they'd go after Microsoft first.

      --
      "Old man yells at systemd"
    5. Re:Very interesting... by swb · · Score: 2

      It's hard to gauge with Hillary. She backs the authority structure and big money, so pharma, alcohol and law enforcement will likely pressure her into at least not furthering the legalization trend. Plus, she's from the I-inhaled-in-college-only generation and possibly even opposes it personally.

      That being said, she'll face popular opinion -- and pressure from the minorities she's pandered to in the election to quit jailing them over pot use. Plus it's hard to see eliminating it in the states where it's already legal -- the money is too good, and the rightly paranoid have probably vacuum sealed ten lifetimes worth in case the whole deal goes down.

      Trump could go either way, but something tells me the deal maker and businessman would see the value in increased tax revenue and lower policing costs in addition to the entrepreneurial nature of legalization.

    6. Re:Very interesting... by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      The USA still has a lot of privately held small local banks. Often still owned by a single extended family. I did a year at one. (Moron married to a niece sank it. Couldn't keep a loan origination pipeline hedged, his only job, quarter mil/year in early 90s. No fun at work, great ratio...I digress.)

      Anybody with about 20 million and a non-felon to put up as president can own a bank. There is paperwork of course, don't try to own a bank if you don't like paperwork.

      Paypal is not a bank by US law, is one by EU law. They are a special case where they don't want to be a bank.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  3. The jokes write themselves by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Funny

    What are the smoking to come with this idea?

    1. Smoke Weed,
    2. Azure Cloud
    3. Chilled out clients
    4. Profit!

    Burma Shave!

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  4. Yeah by c · · Score: 4, Funny

    With the $26 billion Linkedin buyout, it's certainly obvious that Microsoft has a lot of expertise in the cannabis industry.

    --
    Log in or piss off.
  5. Completely fucking pointless! by Khyber · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The software already exists - it's called an INVENTORY/LOGISTICS SYSTEM. Any basic fucking warehouse has one.

    Oh, but this time, WEED IS INVOLVED! That's worth a patent, right?

    Give me a fucking break.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    1. Re:Completely fucking pointless! by magarity · · Score: 2

      The software already exists - it's called an INVENTORY/LOGISTICS SYSTEM. Any basic fucking warehouse has one.

      Oh, but this time, WEED IS INVOLVED! That's worth a patent, right?

      Give me a fucking break.

      You underestimate how much work is involved in redoing all the UI with a psychedelic slow motion background and postfixing all the dialog box texts with ", man."

  6. Get Everyone On The Same List by zenlessyank · · Score: 2

    So the government can come in with one swoop and get them all.

  7. Boulder CO has an ecology of Cannabis startups by peter303 · · Score: 2

    There is even a tech startup incubator called Boulder Canopy managing at least eight startups. I attended part of cannabis track at Boulder Startup Week in May. Numerous mom and pop startups buy from a mushrooming service industry (pun intended). The big divide is whether you directly handle leaf or not (farm, process, retail). The industry is shunned by the established financial and computer industry out of fear of seizure laws. Pages are quickly shutdown on conventional social media. So a shadow computer services industry is supplying social, cloud storage etc. yes, people saidtheir cloud apps were banned by all the conventional cloud companies as soon as their nature was discovered.

  8. aint none by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is no legal marijuana industry in this country. Just a president who refuses to uphold our laws like he pledged to when he took office. And there is no assurance that the next president will not enforce those laws, and use all of those nice public records to help do it.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:aint none by blindseer · · Score: 2

      Makes me wonder what implications this has for gun control. The Democrats are working hard to recreate the failed assault weapons ban, what if they are successful and a handful of states pass opposing laws? Will AR-15 rifles be legal in Colorado but not Wyoming?

      I think the federal government set themselves up for failure by not legalizing marijuana a decade ago. Now we have a precedent of federal law getting overruled by state law. If the federal government wants to claim that federal law is supreme then they fucked up a long time ago.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  9. The Fed Reserve currently bans pot banks by peter303 · · Score: 2

    The Colorado legislature incorporated a state credit union for handling the growing volume of all cash pot transaction (nearly a billion according state strict monitoring laws). The regional Federal Reserve Bank refused membership of this bank and participation in final clearing services. Without Fed clearing services you cannot transfer money, cash checks or credit. The credit union lost a lawsuit earlier this year to reverse the Feds decision.