Hawaii aims to start cashless payment of medical pot from October

Posted by Sagar Satapathy on September 13, 2017.

Hawaii State officials have planned to make it the first state to go cashless in marijuana sales. Starting October 1, all the eight dispensaries in the State have agreed to use cashless payment system. The decision has been taken to avoid crimes like robbery, dispensary attacks and also makes the finances transparent.

For the cashless payment system, the patients will be asked to use a debit payment app ‘CanPay’ for purchasing medical cannabis. While CanPay uses a Colorado-based credit union to facilitate transactions, the dispensaries have been asked to open accounts with a credit union called Safe Harbor Private Banking. Customers purchasing medical pot through CanPay will be directed to Safe Habor for payment.

Currently, this debit payment app is in use in a total of six states including California and Colorado. The app is free for customers to use. Other credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard had refused to allow customers to purchase cannabis using their credit cards.

The cashless payment system can also be used by customers who don’t own smartphones. Those without smart phones, need to create an account on CanPay using their email id and personal identification number. Once created, the customers can pay through tablets available in the dispensaries by logging in to their respective accounts.

However, the State lawmakers are yet to decide if customers preferring cash payment will be entitled to purchase or not.

Though Hawaii had legalized medical marijuana way back in 2000, the medical marijuana licenses were granted only last year.

Since the Federal Government regulates banking and bans marijuana, several cannabis business houses deal in cash for the fear of legal trouble from the US Government.

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