Cannabis Delivery Platform Is Shutting Down Due To Regulatory Challenges To Third-Party Apps

Cannabis delivery website Lantern announced last week that it will close down by the end of January, citing regulatory challenges in other states. Lantern’s business model as a third-party delivery app for dispensaries is in conflict with regulations in states that don’t allow dispensaries to use these types of apps.

“While our Boston-area business continued to grow and serve the expanding cannabis community with the best selection, lowest prices, and convenient delivery, it proved difficult for Lantern to expand outside of Massachusetts, due to both the speed of legalization and the challenging regulatory framework that affects all cannabis businesses, both ancillary and plant-touching,” Meredith Mahoney CEO and co-founder at Lantern, wrote on LinkedIn.

“We wish every state approached ancillary third-party tech companies the way our home state of MA did, but unfortunately that's not how regulations are being proposed in key northeast markets such as New York. Part of our mission at Lantern was to support and advance social equity founders in cannabis," she continued. "As a team, we remain and will continue to be fierce advocates for strong, meaningful social equity policies. Specifically, we're confident MA will make the social equity delivery licenses more sustainable businesses by, among other things, reducing the 2-driver rule to 1-driver.”

While Lantern is closing, its partner Doobie recently launched operations in San Francisco in partnership with Posh Green Cannabis Boutique.

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Photo by Shelby Ireland on Unsplash

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