Cannabis legalization has gained traction in the United States in recent years. Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, New York, and South Dakota have all legalized cannabis for recreational adult use, with South Dakota and Mississippi also approving medical-use campaigns. Recently, sixteen states, including Washington, D.C., have legalized adult-use cannabis, while thirty-seven states allow medical cannabis dispensing.
Legal recreational cannabis sales in the United States are expected to exceed $25 billion by 2025. As the authorized cannabis industry evolves to meet rising demand and an expanding market, sellers and delivery services must work hard to keep their products out of the hands of minors. Cannabis sales to the underaged can result in fines, jail, suspension, or revocation of a dispensary’s operating license.
Whether in-person or online, vendors must be confident in their ability to determine a customer’s legal age. However, not all methods of age verification are made equal. For example, online businesses often need consumers to self-report their age before accessing a website or making online purchases. Unfortunately, self-reported information gives almost no genuine age verification and is unlikely to pass any regulatory inspection.
It can be challenging to examine if a customer’s credentials are authentic or counterfeit. Despite this, dispensaries must leave behind outmoded methods of age identity proofing in favor of more sophisticated ones that effectively verify a customer’s age.
Biometric technology is a cutting-edge alternative for confirming identity. A popular example of biometric identification solutions is facial recognition. It provides the highest certainty about a person’s digital identity, especially their age. Additionally, it starts by requiring new users to take photos of their government-issued ID when creating an account.
Identity verification systems can extract personal information from driver’s licenses and other ID documents, such as the date of birth, which can subsequently be used to calculate the current age of the user’s account and determine whether the document has been tampered with.
Here is an infographic from authID to provide more information about the matter.
