Despite marijuana getting legalised in state after state after state, in one way or another, big American corporations have stayed away entirely.
And who can blame them really? After all, cannabis is still illegal, according to the federal government.
But, in a rather bold move, Microsoft is about to move into the legal marijuana industry, by helping the government regulate weed in the U.S.
The technology giant is going to join forces with a company that makes software for the cannabis industry, KIND Financial, to help officials at a local and state level to track marijuana sales.
Essentially, Microsoft’s ‘Azure Government’ service will help to make sure that all legal sales of cannabis are above board and totally legit – which can be only good news for the industry.
Allan St.Pierre, Executive director of NORML, a nonprofit organisation advocating for marijuana law reform, praised the move and hopes it will encourage other major corporations to follow suit.
Speaking to The Huffington Post, he said:
We’re psyched to see a major company like Microsoft jump into this space. It’s only going to encourage other companies to do it.At this point, it would be imprudent not to figure out how or where your company would profit from the emergent cannabis space.
GettyWith a massive company like Microsoft now getting on board with the legal marijuana biz, surely it’s only a matter of time before it’s legalised entirely in the U.S.?
