Apple will no longer prohibit marijuana delivery services from being hosted on its App Store\u2014one of the latest pro-cannabis developments to come out of the tech industry.<\/p>\n
The policy was updated last month to remove the ban, with some restrictions. A marijuana app must be geo-restricted to jurisdictions where cannabis is legal, and the program must be \u201csubmitted by a legal entity that provides the services, and not by an individual developer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what the previous policy<\/a> said:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cApps that encourage consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol are not permitted on the App Store. Apps that encourage minors to consume any of these substances will be rejected. Facilitating the sale of controlled substances (except for licensed pharmacies), marijuana, or tobacco is not allowed.<\/p>\n The new policy<\/a>, which was updated<\/a> on June 7, reads:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cApps that encourage consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol are not permitted on the App Store. Apps that encourage minors to consume any of these substances will be rejected. Facilitating the sale of controlled substances (except for licensed pharmacies and licensed or otherwise legal cannabis dispensaries<\/strong>), or tobacco is not allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cApps that provide services in highly-regulated fields (such as banking and financial services, healthcare, gambling, legal cannabis use,<\/strong> and air travel) or that require sensitive user information should be submitted by a legal entity that provides the services, and not by an individual developer. Apps that facilitate the legal sale of cannabis must be geo-restricted to the corresponding legal jurisdiction.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n TechCrunch first reported<\/a> on the new guidelines, and WeedWeek later flagged<\/a> the marijuana-specific guidance.<\/p>\n In contrast, Google\u2019s Android app hub updated its policy in 2019<\/a> to explicitly prohibit programs that connect users with cannabis, no matter whether it is legal in the jurisdiction where the user lives.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t allow apps that facilitate the sale of marijuana or marijuana products, regardless of legality,\u201d it says<\/a>, adding that some examples of violations would be \u201callowing users to order marijuana through an in-app shopping cart feature\u201d or \u201cassisting users in arranging delivery or pick up of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n It also says that \u201cfacilitating the sale of products containing THC(Tetrahydrocannabinol), including products such as CBD oils containing THC\u201d is against its policies.<\/p>\n Chris Vaughn, CEO of the California delivery service Emjay, told WeedWeek that he believes Apple\u2019s decision was informed by the continuing legalization movement in states like New York, as well as Amazon\u2019s recent announcement that it will no longer be drug testing workers for cannabis<\/a>\u00a0in addition to lobbying for a federal legalization bill. He added that he thinks Google will \u201cfollow quickly\u201d to update its own policies.<\/p>\n The tech industry has had a strained relationship with the marijuana industry, even as a growing number of states have decided to legalize and regulate the sale of cannabis.<\/p>\n Facebook, which in 2019 showed off its artificial intelligence technology that\u2019s capable of identifying images of marijuana<\/a>, continues to prohibit the commercial advertising of cannabis products, regardless of the legality of the business under state law.<\/p>\n Noncommercial cannabis news sites such as Marijuana Moment and state regulatory bodies like the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission have also been\u00a0caught up in the anti-marijuana policy<\/a>\u00a0despite the fact that they do not promote or sell cannabis products. In some cases, it appears these organizations have been hidden from appearing in search results\u2014a practice known as \u201cshadowbanning.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite marijuana firms being banned from Google\u2019s app market, some of the company\u2019s top officials seem pretty bullish about loosening cannabis laws. Google co-founder Sergey Brin joked about supplying employees with joints<\/a> at a post-election meeting in 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cI was asking if we could serve joints outside on the patio, but apparently these things take a little while to take effect,\u201d Brin said, referring to the implementation of California\u2019s cannabis legalization measure. \u201cIt was a huge, huge disappointment. I\u2019ve been bemoaning that all week, I\u2019ll be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n House Approves Bill To Let Researchers Access Marijuana From State-Legal Dispensaries<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Apple Now Allows Marijuana Businesses On Its App Store, While Google Maintains Ban<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Apple will no longer prohibit marijuana delivery services from being hosted on its App Store\u2014one of the latest pro-cannabis developments to come out of the tech industry. The policy was updated last month to remove the ban, with some restrictions. A marijuana app must be geo-restricted to jurisdictions where cannabisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1335,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48616,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48615\/revisions\/48616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Apple Now Allows Marijuana Businesses On Its App Store, While Google Maintains Ban<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"