Ask a Stoner: Do Dispensaries Accept Passports?

Dear Stoner: A dispensary in Fort Collins told me that my U.S. passport could be counterfeit and was not a valid ID. Is there any definition of a valid ID and what forms are acceptable? I’m 72 years old.
Tom

Dear Tom: It sounds like that dispensary fed you some bullshit: We’ve checked with multiple Colorado dispensaries and even the state Marijuana Enforcement Division, and all say that, like a state-issued ID, a valid passport or Native American or military ID should get someone over twenty — and you’re clearly past that — into a recreational dispensary. What really pisses me off, though, is that you were fed an even stinkier, steamier piece of false information: What sort of asshole expects you to believe that a passport is easier to counterfeit than a driver’s license? Who do they think you are, Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can?

This smells like a dispensary obsessed with scanning identification. Some dispensaries require ID scanning because they don’t trust their employees to meet the intense scrutiny that the industry faces for selling to minors. Others scan IDs to keep consumer data. Either way, scanning creeps us out. Still another reason for the dispensary’s stupid action could be that it required ID scanning but didn’t have a scanner that can authenticate passports.

No matter what, your passport is a valid form of ID. We’d say skip that shop in the future.

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