"What if, like, a drone could deliver weed in San Francisco?"
It's the kind of question that, asked between coughs, might get a laugh — but also might end one's turn at the bong for a little while.
Yet Trees CEO and co-founder Marshall Hayner is more earnest in his speculation. With a bit of smoke and mirrors, the entrepreneur's promotional video of a drone delivering a box of marijuana made the rounds on the Internet, even scoring him an interview with Mashable.
"We see drones as an amazing tool for delivery. A drone will never be late," he said.
According to Mic, Hayner could be seen giving a fairly unsuccessful demonstration of his services at Dolores Park this past weekend. With his "beer and vape pen in hand," Hayner "briefly flew a drone rigged with a joint-delivery apparatus as his colleagues looked on. After receiving payment via Bitcoin, the drone dropped the joint, then crashed to the ground." Apparently there was light applause — perhaps out of pity, or perhaps at the drone's crash-landing.
Sure, this is just a prototype — a beta — but Hayner insists that he mean business. "We have a fleet of three drones that have mechanical arms," said Hayner. "We tested them, we're ready, the only thing that holds us back is the FAA."
Coincidentally, I have a spaceship ready to blast off, but the FAA is also on my case.
Hamstrung by these and other narrow minds, Trees current delivery model is nothing new As Mic writes, after a few hiccups — and several hours of waiting — not a drone but Hayner himself arrived to make the delivery. Pay no attention to the man vaping behind the curtain, I guess.
Related: Gavin Newsom And Marijuana Task Force Want To Regulate Legal Pot-Grows Like Breweries