Buying Medical Marijuana with Hypur in Ohio Dispensaries

What is Hypur?

Have you ever been preparing to make a dispensary trip and realized, "I have way too much cash on me to feel comfortable." This is a common issue that medical marijuana patients face, and it relates to the federal illegality of cannabis. Traditionally, dispensaries have attempted to address this concern by providing patients with ATMs at the location, allowing patients to pull out only the amount of cash they will need for the purchase that day.

 

While most, if not all, dispensaries in Ohio will provide patients with an in-store ATM, there is a processing fee associated with these ATMs that patients would obviously prefer to avoid - every dollar counts. For this reason, nearly every dispensary in Ohio has teamed with Hypur to provide patients with a convenient and secure electronic alternative payment option.

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Why is Cash the Only Payment Choice for Medical Marijuana?

The federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule-1 drug is the primary obstacle that currently blocks banks from working with cannabis businesses. As we have covered before, "The 2016 legislation Ohio passed implementing a medical marijuana program for qualifying patients also exempted banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions from Ohio's criminal laws for providing services to cannabis-related businesses. However, federal regulators still prohibit financial institutions from providing services to these businesses; even if a bank has an Ohio charter, it is often still regulated by the federal government due to insurance technicalities."

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This conflict has been an issue since medical marijuana was first passed in a state-approved program by California in 1996. There is currently legislation, namely the SAFE Banking Act, that is aimed at addressing the obstacles that prohibit banks and credit unions from working with cannabis entities. The measure has gained a substantial amount of momentum in 2019 as the U.S. House Financial Services Commitee, for the first time ever, approved cannabis banking legislation. The measure now waits for a full-House vote and, with approval, would move on to the Senate.

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More directly related to the patient experience, these restrictions for the banking industry also means that dispensaries are prohibited from accepting credit cards for payment. According to numerous experts, "the major credit card networks do not allow merchants to use their cards for marijuana purchases - they do not even have a merchant code for such purposes - and will shut down any account they find out of compliance with this policy."

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Thankfully for patients in Ohio, Hypur became one of few payment systems willing to work with cannabis businesses to ensure a convenient and secure alternative payment option at dispensaries. 

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How Do I Buy Medical Marijuana with Hypur?

If you are familiar with payment applications such as Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle, Hypur works in a very similar manner. Hypur is used specifically in medical marijuana dispensaries and they are one of very few payment systems that have been willing to work with the industry.

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Using Hypur to make payments at an Ohio dispensary may seem confusing, but it is actually a rather straightforward process that will take less then 5 minutes of your time to set up!

1. Download the Hypur app from the App Store (iOS) or the Android Store on your smart phone.

2. Open the App and "Create Account". You will follow the steps that are prompted on the screen and enter general information for your account profile.

3. Connect your bank account. If you have a mobile app for banking on your phone, Hypur will redirect you to your banking login where you will enter your information and Submit. If you do not have a mobile app, just make sure to have your routing and account number on hand to manually enter that information. Once your bank account has been connected, you will be prompted to create a designated 4-digit pin code that will be entered when at the dispensary to make the payment.

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Once you have set your account up and linked your bank account, you will notice that you have a balance available on the app that will reflect the amount of money you currently have in your bank account. When using Hypur for your payment, you will simply login to your account on the Hypur app, "Check-In" to the dispensary you are at by pressing the green check mark, and from there the budtender will ask you to enter your pin code when finalizing the payment. Once the pin code has been accepted, the money will be pulled from the bank account connected.