The Independent is reporting that “tech giant Microsoft announced it is partnering with a cannabis industry-focused software company called Kind Financial”.

This is the first major tech giant to get involved in the business which has predominately been shaped by small tech start-ups so far.

The Independent is quoting Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML, who thinks the partnership could affect legislation. “Microsoft has a leviathan [lobbying] effort up here in Washington [D.C.],”.“One of the things that has been really interesting to see is how the focus is becoming not so much about legalization per say, that’s almost become a bugaboo word up on the Hill, but just focusing in on these commerce reforms, for example to allow banks to handle this trade … they lobby hard for that stuff on the Hill right now and to have a Microsoft weigh in saying, we want to be part of that commerce, can only buoy those efforts.”

We are excited to see this putting once again a focus on cannabis and it will certainly further educate the wider public on the benefits of cannabis and industrial hemp. Media coverage of the cannabis and industrial hemp business can only benefit consumers and the growing industry. We are excited for further hemp investments from big companies such as Microsoft.

It would certainly be nice to also have a wider focus on industrial hemp as an alternative to medical marijuana, as it has the same benefits, without the psychoactive THC (as portrayed in a previous blog entry).

Full article available here.

Picture © DPA.

Happy hemping everyone!