Medbox Aims For Budding Market
COURTESY
California-based Medbox hopes its biometric dispensing machines are a hit with medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts.
More than 60 percent of Massachusetts voters approved the legalization of medical marijuana on Nov. 6, but you have to look closely to see some of the immediate impacts.
One of what is sure to be many new establishments in the medical marijuana industry can be found in Natick, where California-based Medbox Inc. has opened an office on Speen Street. The company will use the location to display its dispensing technology, which the company hopes will catch on with pot dispensaries, once they are up and running.
High-Tech Pot Lock Box
Medbox, through its subsidiary Medicine Dispensing Systems (MDS), sells automated, biometric dispensing and storage systems for medicine and merchandise.
The majority of the company's sales so far are to medical marijuana dispensaries, though it also targets prisons and urgent-care centers as customers, said MDS CEO Vincent Mehdizadeh.
Mehdizadeh said states with strict regulations on marijuana dispensaries are perfect for Medbox because its devices ensure patients' identities through fingerprint checks, security from theft and keep detailed records for tax purposes.
"The technology I invented and the company sells basically tracks everything, makes sure limits are not exceeded, and makes sure doctor recommendations are heeded," Mehdizadeh said.
That could be a strong draw in Massachusetts, where 35 dispensaries will be licensed. Rulemaking is just getting underway at the state level.
But in a state like Colorado, which just legalized the recreational use of marijuana, there is less of a need for Medbox, since any adult will soon be able to buy the drug.
The company also offers consulting to would-be dispensary operators. Mehdizadeh said that his company, in partnership with Kind Clinics (which is headed by Medbox CEO Dr. Bruce Bedrick), secured 20 out of 97 Arizona marijuana dispensary licenses for clients there.
Medbox will host product demonstrations at its facility during the last three days of November, where it hopes to meet potential clients and customers.
One-Week Rollercoaster
Medbox, which trades on the OTC Markets, is now looking to get a listing on the OTC Bulletin Board, which has stricter financial filing requirements and could lead to higher trading volume and liquidity.
That could be important, given what happened to Medbox's stock last week, following a Wall Street Journal article about medical marijuana stocks.
The company's shares had been trading at below $3 at the end of October, but last week jumped from $6 to $205, before falling back down to $20 a day later.
Bedrick released a statement on the volatile trading: "While we are pleased by the share attention, Medbox shares have traded between $2.75 and $3.45 over the past several months. Our fundamentals and market potential are improving, especially with the potential of our new Rx product line, but we temper investor expectations at present price points."
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