Hawaii Becomes First U.S. State To Go Cashless For Marijuana Sales

By Aaron Kesel

Hawaiian state officials announced Tuesday that Hawaii will be the first state to require the sale of marijuana to be cashless, paid with a special debit card payment system next month.

“Oct. 1 is our target date to try to go cashless as much as we can,” Iris Ikeda the state’s financial institutions commissioner, told reporters at a news conference.

While marijuana is legal for medical use in Hawaii, the feds still consider it a Schedule I drug. This status has brought problems for many banks and credit unions, which is the reason why cannabis dispensaries have been cash-only.

The Governor of Hawaii, David Ige, has praised the cashless move stating:

This cash-free solution makes sense. It makes dispensary’s finances transparent, and it makes it easier for the patients who are being served.

Instead of cash, customers will have to download and install CanPay, a mobile app that processes payment for medicinal marijuana shops using a Colorado-based credit Union, Safe Harbor Private Banking.

The app is already an option for marijuana transactions in six states, including California and Colorado.

“You download it on your smartphone. It will link up to a checking account and you will get a QR code. With that code you are able to use that at the dispensary,” Ikeda said.

Now a battle begins with credit card processing companies like Visa and Mastercard who say they won’t allow their cards to be used to buy cannabis or marijuana-related products.

Dispensaries should consider instead using cryptocurrency for their payments since they are already using a QR code and digital assets use a wallet that can only be taken from with the private wallet password, so their funds would be safe from potential robbers and from the government seizing assets.

Hawaii was among the first states to legalize medical marijuana in 2000 but the state didn’t grant licenses to dispensaries until last year. Maui Grown Therapies became the first to open last month after the state Department of Health gave it the approval to begin sales.

There is an increased uncertainty over how the Trump administration will react. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has continuously said he wants to “crack down on the legal marijuana industry” and that the plant causes “violence.”

Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post and is Director of Content for Coinivore. Follow Aaron at Twitter and Steemit.

This article is Creative Commons and can be republished in full with attribution. Like Activist Post on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube, follow on Twitter and at Steemit.

Image Credit: Forbes


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25 Comments on "Hawaii Becomes First U.S. State To Go Cashless For Marijuana Sales"

  1. So, how much you spend on weed every month will be known to one and all! Insurance companies, debt collectors, ex spouses, the child support office etc.

  2. We must resist any temptation to use any form of a cashless method to acquire goods. The more we submit to purchasing goods without cash the more we become ingrained into the grid. Imagine a cashless society where if we have disputes with a government entity and they just decide to freeze our accounts. Oops, no milk today. No soup for you.

    • Why would I ask a state for permission to grow a plant? It’s called weed for a reason! I live in the Sunshine State, where the laws are darker than most, and don’t care what the state says I can do. It just sprouts up out of the ground. Why should I pay?

  3. No Jeff, alcohol causes violence. But this cashless shite is just that. Wow. Don’t comply. Figure out a way.
    Cashless is the control grid writ large.

  4. Ahhh, the first steps towards the beast system? Ahh makes so much sense, ahhh. Right gov.?

  5. This is the way the traitors in office – high and low – are using to force the American people to go cashless, then they will be completely under the control of those corrupt who serve within our governments.

    This is not just about tracking a person, though that is important when they decide you (generic “you”) need to be “picked up”. This is about contol. They will then ocntrol what and if you are allowed to eat, drink, have heat or can cool off, if you can have water to use or not, etc (“Smartmeters”).

    Don’t shop anywhere it is self checkout or “cashless”. If you are smart you will also refuse smartmeters and have them taken off your home and replaced with analog again – but a lot of those domestic enemies and traitors to the US Constitution will NOT allow the replacement. Dump any big screen TV’s, replace any vehicle you now have with a computer in it with an good running older vehicle – did you really think those computers and GPS in your “newer” car was for YOUR convenience? Do NOT buy any modified foods, etc.

    We can take back our world, we can stop them if we quit paying for the benefit of them to spy on us, etc.

    Why do you htink that the US Constitution is not taught to those who study law (judges precedents are taught and the “unwritten” Constitution – compacts and contracts are always strongest written), enforce law, or are in the military? If they KNEW what is allowed by those who serve within our government most would not willingly aid them in the destruction of our nation from within. Why not? Because they lose also – they also will never to be ALLOWED to own anything, even clothes, food, water/drinks, all to be owned and dispersed by those who serve within our governments. Is this YOUR idea of bliss? It’s my idea of He//

  6. Ban the government !!!

  7. …more corrupt government intrusion …by corrupt government…for the purpose of control and getting their cut….what effing’ pigs. What business is it of theirs? None. Fascist bastards.
    RJ O’Guillory

  8. For some reason, I can’t see all the pakalolo smokers switching to electronic currency.

  9. So if you don’t have a smart phone you can’t get your prescription filled?

  10. Hook ’em ‘n cook ’em. Like catfish in an Alabama creek.

  11. A “State”has no authority that I know of, to deny the right of U.S. Citizens to use Fed Res Notes, ehich is legal tender to buy products. Credit/Debit cards are “liability contracts=debt contracts” to purchase products. BUt hey, that is what FRN’s are also,Right? NO. FRNs are legal tender. The corporation known as the STATE OF HAWAII, IS WITHOUT CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY TO FORCE PAYMENT IN SOMETHING WHICH IS NOT FRNs.

  12. Jeff Sessions has continuously said he wants to “crack down on the legal marijuana industry” and that the plant causes “violence.” Yees, of course, and alcohol causes peace and serenity.

    • So do politicians, yeah right. 🙂 It’s all about the big money the government gets by importing illegal drugs. Check out Shadowmasters by Daniel Estulin.

  13. The US Government has officially been declared a criminal organization by the Office of Official Declarations. Any and all cooperation with the US Government or its corporate satellites will be officially declared an act of treason. Paying income tax will therefore be illegal, as well as mandatory. You will be arrested accordingly. Agents of the aforementioned criminal organization will then try you in a court of law, using the aforementioned income tax to pay for the proceedings. This is depressing. I’m going downstairs to get high.

  14. Cashless = Mark of the Beast pretty soon. Write checks! Use Cash! Refuse to go cashless! Stop with the online banking using your radiation spewing smart phones to scan checks. Stop direct deposit. Or else we’ll suffer the consequences.

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