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From a dispensary to your front door – that’s the promise of Doobie, St. Louis’ only home-based cannabis delivery service, which marked July 22 as its first day of conveying orders to patients in the medical marijuana in the metro area.
While the service may initially look like DoorDash for weed, Doobie currently connects patients only with products to Jeanne Dispensary (6662 boulevard Delmar, university campus; 314-464-4420). On a recent weekday, the service sent a shiny white van with frozen bags of THC candy to a residence in southern St. Louis.
But in fact, getting a delivery of cannabis – which in this test case took about two hours from ordering to receiving the product – isn’t as simple as launching a food delivery app and scrolling through a menu of your favorite Chinese restaurant.
On the one hand, as Jane’s general manager Jordan Everding explains, your delivery driver isn’t a stranger he hired through an app. Instead, the entire process, from product to driver to vehicle, is controlled by the local dispensary. Doobie is just the “delivery partner,†Everding says.
What Doobie offers is the online system that unites Jane’s cannabis menu with delivery tracking software and payment processing. This is where things get a bit tricky.
First, customers need to create an account with Hypur, a third-party payment processor linked to your checking account, which charges the full amount of your order at checkout. Everding says this system meets Missouri’s legal requirement that all cannabis purchases are paid for on the spot. This means that the entire delivery is effectively cashless.
For some customers, these steps can be a digital barrier, and Everding recognizes that customers might be wary of linking a bank account or setting up a Hypur PIN just to get delivery.
But at least for now, this is the only route for legal cannabis delivery to Saint-Louis. (Everding also notes that while the current Doobie order form appears to offer an alternate payment method, the field listed as “Pay by Phone” actually connects customers to an employee of Jane – who will then walk you through the steps of creating a Hypur account to complete the checkout process. Everding says the current menu will be updated soon to better reflect payment options.)
Customers should also expect to provide their Missouri medical marijuana card number and identification or driver’s license. They should also be available for a phone call from a Jane employee who will finalize the order. (Remember to keep your Hypur PIN code handy!)
Additionally, the delivery driver will ask you to sign a form and resubmit your medical card and ID, all of the steps necessary to comply with the ‘seed to sale’ tracking system. State.
Granted, these are a lot of extra steps. But in an interview, Everding says the first week of the delivery service showed just how necessary it really is – and how eager customers are to enjoy the convenience of on-demand cannabis.
“From a regulatory standpoint, we have a lot of hurdles to overcome,†she notes. “But I just think people are so excited to have the cannabis delivery. Everyone has been so patient and understanding, and they have been willing to run through the mud with us to get to the point where we can. park up to the front door and give them cannabis. ”
The additional steps to make cannabis delivery work underscore the complexities of operating in the industry while the federal government still considers the product an illegal drug.
On the one hand, the existence of a service like Doobie could not exist without the state’s legal structure: in dropping off a Doobie-branded bag containing the ordered THC edibles, Jane’s delivery driver said to RFT that he appreciates the extra paperwork: that means the Missouri State Highway Patrol is alerted when a (legal) delivery of weed is on the streets. The driver was understandably grateful not to be mistaken for a drug dealer every time he left the store with a new order.
On the flip side, large financial institutions still view the cannabis industry as risky, forcing dispensaries to rely on cash transactions or companies like Hypur.
To encourage medical marijuana patients to try the delivery service, Doobie’s fees are waived until August. Everding tells the RFT that the fee will eventually apply at a flat rate of $ 10 per delivery, although she added that the company is also considering a tiered structure based on delivery distance.
Regarding the delivery footprint, Everding says the store accepts orders from customers as far as St. Louis County “a little further west” of Interstate 270.
“We wanted to be the only delivery in the area right now,†she says, “so we wanted to make sure we can serve as many people as possible.â€
For more information on setting up a Doobie compatible doobie delivery, visit TryDoobie.com. For a more practical account of Jane Dispensary products – including the amazing cannabis strain “Bubba Fett” – see the RFTby Tommy Chimchards for the full article.
Follow Danny Wicentowski on Twitter at @D_Towski. Email the author at [email protected]
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