The first marijuana delivery app is live on the App Store
On June 7, Apple made a change to its long-standing policy forbidding the sale of marijuana or other weed-related products on its native App Store. Until then, the sale of cannabis had been a strictly banned category alongside apps that "promote excessive or inappropriate uses of controlled substances."
Now, the ban has been lifted to allow the in-app purchase of cannabis and CBD products, but, as could be expected, only where they are legal.
Businesses will be allowed to publish applications selling their products as long as they geo-restrict app access to those (legal) areas. Not just any solo developer will not be permitted to set up shop on the App Store, however: only a "legal entity that provides the services" will be allowed. In other words, only officially licensed sellers can do so.
This comes in stark contrast to Google, which continues to ban Google Play apps that "facilitate the sale of marijuana or marijuana products," with no exceptions.
The first full-service cannabis delivery app is now live on the App Store
As soon as Apple's policy regarding marijuana apps changed on Wednesday, sellers wasted no time in boarding the bandwagon to offer their goods through the streamlined experience of an app.
And so, the first official fully serviced app that can deliver marijuana right to your doorstep, can now be downloaded in the App Store—barely two days after the ban had lifted (reported by Marijuana Moment).
Marijuana delivery service Eaze has beaten the crowd to that milestone, and now offers the full experience of registration, ID verification, product selection, payment, and product delivery—all from the streamlined convenience of your smartphone. What a developer team Eaze must have to throw all this together in such a short timespan!
The shoppable Eaze app is a major milestone for the legal cannabis market and consumers... The flexibility and depth of our technical team allowed us to respond immediately to the changes in Apple's policy, and create an app that offers our customers the ideal experience for cannabis delivery. —Eaze
Eaze CEO Rogelio Choy shared his elation at the progress the cannabis market will now begin to enjoy.
"Eaze has always been about using the latest developments in technology to make shopping for legal cannabis more accessible. It’s hard to overstate how important this is to our company and the industry. It’s deeply gratifying to launch the Apple Store’s first fully-functional cannabis delivery app, making it even easier for our two million registered customers to legally consume.”
It may make sense to expect Google to follow suit after Apple, eventually, as they are known to be more lenient when it comes to what's allowed on the Google Play store and on Android in general. Of course, only time will tell.
Things that are NOT allowed: