Apple’s iPhone and Cannabis

Looking to score some pot? said Chris Brandrick in PC World. “Yep, iPhone’s got an app for that.” Apple’s App Store, already no stranger to controversy, just approved an app called “Cannabis,” which steers iPhone and iPod touch users to “the nearest available marijuana supply.” Of course it only shows dispensaries for legal, medical marijuana, so iPhone users outside of the dozen or more applicable states may not want to fork over the $3 for “Cannabis.”

With several recession-ravaged states “steadily inhaling the idea of taxing the sale” of marijuana, said Chris Matyszczyk in CNET News, maybe Apple’s “anticipating an uptick in demand.” But “Cannabis” does more than just point you toward legal pot purveyors in the U.S.—or “coffee shops” if you’re in Amsterdam—it also helps you find a good lawyer, should the need arise.

Most companies wouldn’t risk the backlash from the anti-legalization crowd, said Alex Salkever in AOL’s Daily Finance, but Apple has a history of adopting “progressive (and potentially controversial) corporate policies.” It provides benefits to same-sex couples, for instance, and actively opposed California’s gay marriage ban last year.

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Personally, I’d “rather eat glass than use an iPhone,” said Nicholas Deleon in TechCrunch, but I’m with Apple on this one. All “Cannabis” does is access a database available to any cell phone user, so how is this “different than finding the nearest Starbucks”? It isn’t, but the app was featured on the Drudge Report, so “expect to see all sorts of experts on CNN and CNBC claiming the end of civilization.”