American Green President: ‘We Need a Healthy, Stable, Bustling Bitcoin Economy’

‘The measured end of prohibition has opened up many opportunities […].’
– American Green President, Stephen Shearin
American Green became the first publicly traded medical marijuana dispensary brand in the world in 2009. Since then, the company has developed retail, brand, and commercial cultivating solutions in partnership with licensed retail medical marijuana dispensaries across the US.
American Green is a leader in the United States’ nascent cannabis industry. Recently, the company made head waves by introducing a cannabis vending machine that accepts bitcoin in Seattle following its debut in Colorado back in April of 2014. Besides the ZaZZZ machine, the company offers additional cannabis related products and owns several media properties as well as a cultivation division including Jurassic water.
CoinTelegraph spoke with American Green President and COO, Stephen Shearin on the disruptive impact of both the cannabis and cryptocurrency industries, future plans for its vending machines, Bitcoin 2.0, and cannabis-specific crypto coins.
CoinTelegraph: Could you first tell us about your company, American Green?
Stephen Shearin: American Green is publicly traded (OTCPK:ERBB) and is the largest of the companies on the marijuana index. American Green is keenly focused on developing, retailing, branding, and establishing commercial cultivation solutions under its proprietary American Green name, along with our partners who are licensed retail medical marijuana dispensaries.
CT: American Green became the first publicly traded medical marijuana dispensary brand in the world back in 2009. How has legalization in several US states affected you operations?
SS: The measured end of prohibition has opened up many opportunities for American Green. While we’re focused on cannabis from seed to sale, we like that everything we touch can be sold in other marketplaces.
‘Cannabis businesses are not permitted to bank in anything that looks traditional, including the use of credit cards, which presents another big challenge.’

This post was published at Coin Telegraph on 2015-02-27.