MedMen launches round-the-clock marijuana delivery service in Las Vegas

In this 24-hour town of ours you can get a drink, go grocery shopping and lift weights whenever you desire — regardless of the time of day. Now, Las Vegas-area residents can also have legal marijuana delivered to their front door at all hours.

After debuting cannabis delivery service last month in California, MedMen this month began offering 24-hour delivery in Nevada. Co-founder and CEO Adam Bierman says the service provides the same customer experience as visiting one of their three Las Vegas-area MedMen locations. The service is free.

“Our delivery service, from start to finish, is fully owned and operated by MedMen,” Bierman said. “All of our drivers are MedMen employees, so they have the same training, knowledge, commitment and experience as our in-store associates.”

While cannabis delivery is nothing new in Nevada — it’s been legal since the first medical marijuana stores opened in 2015 — bringing the delivery operation in-house is a more recent trend.

A number of Las Vegas Valley dispensaries offer delivery through an independent contractor, such as Blackbird, which is not a dispensary, but is sanctioned by the state. Planet 13, which has seen an uptick in delivery business, used a third-party contractor for deliveries until a few months ago before bringing it in-house, dispensary spokesman David Farris said.

“The ease and convenience that comes with our optimized delivery service is something that customers are gravitating toward,” Farris said.

The Nevada Dispensary Association, which regulates the industry, provides an educational course on delivery from transporters of about one hour because the rules are so extensive, said Riana Durrett, the association’s executive director.

Deliveries must occur during times when a dispensary is open for business, which for the MedMen store at Paradise Road and East Harmon Avenue is 24 hours a day. Other dispensaries close at 10 p.m., meaning deliveries also stop then.

Also, a driver can’t deviate from a documented itinerary. If the driver stops for gas or to get a snack, the stop must be pre-planned. And all deliveries must occur within a 25-mile radius of the store where the order was placed.

“Our focus has always been on retail,” Bierman said. “Over time, reaching our community this way became a priority. We’re launching now because we wanted to be sure the service offers our customers the same premium that they’ve come to expect from MedMen, but from the comfort of their own home.”

Las Vegas motorists won’t be able to identify a dispensary delivery vehicle on the road because vehicles are unmarked for driver safety. Also, the product is stored in a lockbox during transportation and drivers wear body cameras. Deliveries are also restricted to no more than five ounces of recreational marijuana and 10 ounces of medical marijuana.

“Some of our industry-leading technology that we use is new just in the past few months,” Farris said. “We use GPS technology, so we know where the vehicle and our delivery driver are at all times. The customer receives continuous updates during the process, and our drivers utilize an app that confirms the customer’s identity.”

A spokeswoman for Metro Police said any hypothetical scenario in which someone transporting marijuana illegally tries to claim they are a dispensary driver would likely be easy to resolve because drivers and companies must be vetted by the state. State regulations require that all marijuana delivery drivers must carry an “approved vehicle inspection form.”

Along with safety concerns for drivers, Durrett said customers must also be mindful when shopping for a cannabis delivery service.

“It’s very important for consumers to ensure they are ordering from a legal delivery service, so they should only order directly from a dispensary,” Durrett said. “Delivery from a source other than a legal dispensary is dangerous as it could involve theft or dangerous illegal market products.”

For now, MedMen will not charge for delivery, although that is subject to change, the company said.