Updates on the 420 is that Microsoft has announced a partnership to begin offering software that tracks marijuana plants from "seed to sale". The software, a new product in Microsoft's cloud business aims to help states in the United States that have legalised the medical or recreational use of marijuana keep an eye on sales and commerce.
While marijuana remains still illegal as per the federal government, there are several states in the American continent that look forward to making consumption of the product legal. At least five states, this fall, will vote on whether to legalise marijuana for recreational use. The IT giant's entry into the government compliance side of the business only indicates at the beginning of a legitimate infrastructure for an industry that has been growing fast and attracting lots of attention, both good and bad. Kimberly Nelson, executive director of state and local government solutions at Microsoft said, "We do think there will be significant growth. As the industry is regulated, there will be more transactions, and we believe there will be more sophisticated requirements and tool down the road."
The move was announced saying the company will be teaming up with a Los Angeles-based start-up called Kind, that built the software the tech conglomerate will market. Microsoft will work with Kind's "government solutions" division, offering software only to state and local governments that are trying to build compliance systems. However, Microsoft's willingness to attach its name to the marijuana industry is definitely good news for those involved. Founder of Green Wave Advisors, a company that provides data and analysis of the marijuana business, Matthew Karnes said, "It's very telling that a company of this caliber is taking the risk of coming out and engaging with a company that is focused on the cannabis business."
David Dinenberg, the founder and chief executive of Kind, said it had taken a lot of courting of big-name companies to persuade the first one to get on board. It's hard to know if other corporate giants have provided their services quietly ways to cannabis purveyors. The Kind software will be one of eight pieces of preferred software that Microsoft will offer to users of Azure Government -and the only one related to marijuana.
