Microsoft Entering the Marijuana Industry with New Software

Since marijuana is still illegal federally, most major corporations have kept far away from the industry. But Microsoft is breaking barriers by creating software to help dispensaries track their marijuana from seed to sale. The software will help dispensaries inventory their products while operating under the regulations set by states marijuana industries.

More states are legalizing marijuana in some form, which is a large portion of the reason that Microsoft has decided to jump in on the industry. In November, at least 5 states will have recreational marijuana legalization initiatives on their ballots, NY Times reports.

Microsoft representative Kimberly Nelson 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 tools down the road.”

Microsoft will be entering the marijuana industry with software only. The software giant is working with Kind, a Los Angeles startup company. Kind built the software that Microsoft will be marketing. This is a major step in the marijuana industry, as the tech giant tiptoes into this controversial industry.

Founder of Kind, David Dineberg says, “Every business that works in the cannabis space, we all clamor for legitimacy. I would like to think that this is the first of many dominoes to fall.”

The Azure Government software is the only software program related to the marijuana industry. The cloud program is expected to be easy to use and secure.

Kind and Microsoft have applied with Puerto Rico to provide this software to its marijuana businesses. Additional applications with individual states are expected to begin soon.