Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feueur is seeking to shut down a pot delivery service, called Nestdrop, that he says violates a citywide measure passed last year (Proposition D).
Prop D limits the delivery of medical marijuana to patients’ primary caregivers. The lawsuit is also based on the fact that the service infringes upon several rules, including adherence to a certain distance from public parks, schools, and child-care centers.
“They cannot deliver medical marijuana within the city of L.A., period,” Feuer said, according to the Los Angeles Times. Feuer reportedly filed an injunction against the company on Tuesday, and the lawsuit alleges that Nestdrop’s service is a “flagrant attempt to evade the restrictions on the unregulated and illegal delivery of marijuana by motor vehicles.”
The same exemptions that enable medical marijuana storefronts to remain open do not apply to any medical marijuana businesses that incorporate use of a vehicle to transport or deliver medical marijuana.
Nestdrop co-founder Michael Pycher has vowed to fight back against the injunction, refuting claims that his app is a dispensary or even a delivery service, despite the fact that it incorporates a delivery component.
Pycher explained to the Times that his company is instead a “technology platform that connects law abiding medical marijuana patients with local dispensaries to receive the medication that they need in a safe and secure manner.” In other words, Nestdrop does not conduct the deliveries themselves; rather they outsource the deliveries by connecting users with outside delivery services while collecting a percentage off of each sale.
Nestdrop markets itself as the first app-based, on-demand medical marijuana delivery service in the country, notes the Times. They started off as an alcohol delivery service before incorporating weed earlier this year. In 2012, a similar weed delivery service called Speed Weed appeared in the marketplace.
Since Feuer took office, nearly a year and a half ago, he has overseen the closure of 402 medical marijuana dispensaries, notes the Times.
California is rife with hundreds of marijuana delivery services. An app called “Eaze” touts itself as the “Uber of pot,” and startup “Meadow” promises ordering and delivery of medical marijuana to patients in under an hour.
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