AVT, Inc. has published a response to the ZaZZZ marijuana vending machine claiming to be the first marijuana vending machine.
"We were building marijuana vending machines years ago," said Shannon Illingworth, founder and chairman of AVT in a statement released by the company. "In fact, there is a report on Bloomberg News titled 'Dawn of the Marijuana Vending Machine' from back in May 2013," he added.
Other reports trace the AVT-built marijuana vending machine back to early 2011.
Illingworth claims there is a big difference in the type of machine that AVT built and ones discussed in the NBC story about ZaZZZ. "The systems we built were designed to be used by a dispensary operator and functioned as a compliance tool by verifying identities through a biometric fingerprint scan and by creating an unalterable record of purchases for taxation purposes and regulatory adherence," Illingworth stated. He believes that certain protocols must be adhered to in order to protect the fledgling cannabis industry and the consumer. Full release.
