Apr 15, 2014 10:12 AM EDT
First-Ever Marijuana Vending Machine Unveiled In Colorado (VIDEO)

Baking brownies or marijuana-infused bacon is officially old news - the future of marijuana now comes in the shape of a vending machine.

According to NPR News, a company in Colorado has unveiled the first-ever marijuana vending machine. Produced by Stephen Shearin's company, American Green, the machine is called the ZaZZZ machine; it allows for a high-tech purchase of marijuana snacks.

"Many people could look at this and say that's just a vending machine, and they'd be right but mostly wrong," Stephen Shearin, COO of American Green parent Tranzbyte, told Fox 31.

The vending machine was presented to the public outside Montana's Smokehouse barbecue restaurant in Avon on Friday. Greg Honan, owner of Herbal Elements dispensary, will be the first shop to house the vending machine.

"We're looking forward to using the ZAZZ machine to easily track all this inventory," Honan said. We're gonna eliminate the middle man. It'll go straight from the bud tender right into our machine. There's no room for theft by patients, employees ... there's no way to lose track of the inventory."

All machines will be inside licensed marijuana dispensaries in Colorado and other states that legalize weed for either medical or consumer use.

"This takes a little pressure off of the people monitoring the medicine area so they don't have to look over shoulders," Honan said. "There's no theft issue, there's no product disappearing."

To use the machine, a customer must swipe their driver's license. Then, the machine uses multiple cameras to match biometrics, making sure the person making the purchase and the owner of the ID are the same person. The customer can pay by credit or debit card. Products inside the machine will be tracked with radio frequency identification chips.

"The future is outside and we're pretty excited about it," Stephen said. "I don't think we've dreamed what it can do yet, and that's the whole point. You start with this and you start making your way into the future. I think this is a great starting point, and we're excited about it."

American Green hopes to have several of them in place soon.

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