Need pot? Get app

Medical marijuana patients use CanPay instead of cash.

Think of it as PayPal for medical marijuana: CanPay, which enables patients to pay for their cannabis prescriptions without carrying cash, is finding success working with all dispensaries in Florida, its first statewide market.

The payment app is particularly helpful to patients who need delivery, said a spokeswoman for Trulieve, which operates two dispensaries in Orlando and Lady Lake.

“If they can’t leave their house to get to our store, it’s also difficult for them to leave their house to get cash,” said Victoria Walker.

Many banks will not work with marijuana-related businesses because under federal law cannabis is still illegal. So marijuana transactions can put financial institutions at risk. Dispensaries pay a 2 percent transaction fee to CanPay, and use a tablet such as an iPad that can scan a single-use code from customers’ cellphones to finalize sales.

“Obviously we’d like to be able to access credit cards as we move along, but it’s not as big a deal because with this we have three options,” said Cam Martin, assistant director of retail services with Knox Medical.

As long as dispensaries are working with a bank that’s part of the Automated Clearing House network, CanPay can move money from customer’s checking accounts to the businesses, said CEO Dustin Eide. It’s the same mechanism that allows debit-card purchases to take place at some dispensaries, including Knox.

“It’s very much like the debit cards used by major brands, but we built our own system,” he said.

CanPay’s system doesn’t require foreign transactions – “everything is U.S. based,” he said – and does not exchange patient data with the dispensary.

Tight regulation of medical marijuana in Florida made it an easier state for CanPay to reach all retailers because there are so few of them, Eide said. Forty-three dispensaries from six providers are approved. Trulieve operates in Orlando and Lady Lake among its 15 locations, while Knox operates in Orlando among its seven locations.

Three more dispensaries are authorized to provide delivery only.

“It’s easier to have a conversation with five or 13 licensees than 300 or 400 like some states have,” Eide said. “It’s really unique for patients because they can sign up for it as a payment base, and use it wherever they want to shop.”

More than 138,000 patients have been qualified by the state’s Office of Medical Marijuana use to receive the drug. Martin said about 5 percent of Knox patients statewide are using the service; Trulieve doesn’t track such data. Knox launched the service here and in Gainesville in June 2017.

Martin and Walker said staffers at both dispensaries can help customers sign up when needed, and download the app from CanPay’s website. Walker uses the service as a customer.

“It allows the patient flexibility to change up what you’re going to purchase,” she said, regardless of how much cash someone might be carrying.