Cannabis legislation has gained momentum in recent years in the United States. Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, New York, and South Dakota have all legalized recreational adult use of cannabis. Additionally, South Dakota and Mississippi have approved medical-use campaigns. Recently, sixteen states, including Washington, D.C., legalized cannabis for adult use, while 37 states allow medicinal marijuana dispensing.
By 2025, sales of legal recreational cannabis in America are estimated to top $25 billion. As the legal cannabis sector evolves to meet increased demand and a growing market, legal retailers and delivery services must comply with state laws to prevent minors from obtaining the products. Individuals must be at least 21 years old to purchase marijuana legally. If these are sold to the underaged, it can lead to penalties, imprisonment, license suspension, or revocation.
Vendors must be confident in their customer identity verification process to determine if the buyer is of legal age. For instance, internet merchants frequently require users to self-identify their age before accessing a website or making an online transaction. However, this method is inadequate to confirm the claimed age of the buyer.
Age verification techniques such as “age checkers” are insufficient to combat fraud and assure compliance with applicable laws. These approaches are ineffective at verifying the purchaser’s identity. For example, age gates appear as pop-up messages requiring users to input their birthdate to access the online store. However, there is no guarantee that individuals will use their true information. A person can fake their age and purchase items, thus breaching age regulation limits.
As technology advances, legal cannabis merchants must adapt to automated identity verification to safeguard their business and adhere to operating guidelines and age verification. It is past time to replace the inefficient and insecure ID verification mechanism with a more reliable and robust one. These technologies can ascertain the legality of identification cards and other documents.
With the current acceptance of cannabis products for recreational and medical purposes, cannabis sellers must have efficient age verification measures to prevent minors from obtaining age-restricted commodities. Reliance on poor age verification systems is risky for cannabis businesses.
Here is an infographic from authID that provides more information.
