Puffy Delivery has teamed up with The Joint to bring “Express” cannabis delivery to customers across Orange County who don’t have local access to dispensaries. Customers can order at any of 13 kiosk locations, from Fullerton to San Clemente, and their delivery arrives in 5-10 minutes. It’s faster than typical cannabis delivery services and there are no purchase minimums, but it’s cheaper than the dispensary and I don’t have to drive 45 minutes to Santa Ana. Dope!
Express, a collaboration between Puffy Delivery and Santa Ana’s The Joint, partners with businesses, typically smoke and vape shops, that allow them to place a delivery ordering kiosk within their store.
At Smokerz Land in Huntington Beach, customers order inside and meet their cannabis delivery driver outside just a few minutes later. Express typically partners with hosts that add value for cannabis consumers, such as CBD products, glass, vaporizer batteries, and other smoking accessories.
The response of local law enforcement and city officials has been decidedly less dope. One delivery driver was followed by police helicopters for more than an hour!
In San Clemente, the host location, Vix Vapes, received a cease and desist letter from the city, but has decided to weather the storm in favor of the extra foot traffic. A representative of Vix Vapes told the OC Register, “I had to partner with someone or decide to shut [the store] down. This definitely is bringing more traffic to the store.”
Smokerz Land in Huntington Beach contested two tickets for “code violations”, and they were later deemed unenforceable by representatives from the city and the police. Then, on February 6, the day after this blog originally posted, the police entered Smokerz Land and shut down the Express kiosk entirely.
A selection of 20-50 kiosk items update twice daily and include flower, concentrates, vaporizer cartridges, pre-rolls, and edibles. While the selection is limited, compared to the full variety of a dispensary, this allows Puffy Delivery to adequately stock local hubs, which keep delivery times very short. At Vix Vapes in San Clemente, I received my delivery less than four minutes after I completed my order! Express says to expect waits of 5-15 minutes.
Several attorneys have weighed in that the kiosks meet the letter of the existing laws, which permit licensed cannabis delivery across the state. Think of it as a delivery company with a very small service area. Think of it as a help desk for cannabis delivery. After all, why should a patient have to drive 45 minutes to Santa Ana to ask questions about medicine? Why penalize senior consumers who are not comfortable with web ordering from an online delivery service? Express gives large swaths of Orange County cheaper, faster, more informed access to legal cannabis products.
One might argue that the Express locations violate the “spirit” of the law. While they probably are not wrong, it violates the spirit of a law that my community and I did not vote for. I voted yes on Prop 64, which made recreational cannabis legal in the state of California. The city of San Clemente never allowed me to vote on whether my community wants to participate in the cannabis industry or forgo the resulting tax revenue.
If the community agrees with the spirit of the law, they can vote to make it an actual law. Until then, the municipalities need to respect existing laws, which preclude them from harassing cannabis delivery drivers, employees, and hosts that are currently operating lawfully.
