Pot Delivery Business Nipped in Bud

The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office has shut down medical marijuana delivery business SpeedWeed, the office announced Friday. The city attorney claimed the Agoura Hills-based service was in violation of Proposition D, a ballot initiative approved by voters three years ago to regulate the number of medical marijuana businesses in Los Angeles. Delivery service was not specifically allowed under the proposition, the city attorney’s office said. SpeedWeed and its principals, Andrew and Jennifer Gentile, entered into an agreement to shutter their operation as of June 6. That agreement was approved in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 4. The settlement in the case comes as Aquarius Cannabis, in Woodland Hills, has entered into an agreement to acquire all the business interests of SpeedWeed, its trade name and proprietary software. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It’s unclear how that deal may be affected by the agreement to close the business. SpeedWeed, founded in 2011 as a co-op, has about 25,000 customers in Los Angeles and Orange counties to whom it delivers medical marijuana from dispensaries. City Attorney Mike Feuer took legal action against SpeedWeed because Prop D does not give immunity to medical marijuana delivery businesses or for delivery centers located within the city. Even though SpeedWeed is headquartered outside of Los Angeles, it had previously been based in Woodland Hills in Los Angeles and it delivered in Los Angeles, which gave the city attorney jurisdiction. “This is another successful step in our sustained effort to uphold the voters’ will under Proposition D,” Feuer said in a prepared statement. In a 2015 interview with the Business Journal, co-founder Andrew Gentile compared SpeedWeed’s delivery service as similar to getting Chinese food or pizza delivered. The company’s system for ordering, dispatching and managing drivers was based on delivery industry standards set by such firms as Papa John’s Domino’s and FedEx, Gentile said. This was the second medical marijuana business the city attorney’s office has closed. The first, Nestdrop, a smartphone delivery app, was shut down in late 2014 by a court order. The state appellate court affirmed that order in March.