WeedMaps launches daily deals site for pot

The "Yelp for pot" site launches a "Groupon for pot" feature

The cruel irony of a recession is the fact that you have less money while everything seems to go up in price: gas, milk, produce, etc. You know what else isn't getting any cheaper? Weed. Group buying/daily deal startups like Groupon and LivingSocial were created with the aim of negotiating steep discounts with local merchants to 1) offer consumers affordable deals, and 2) encourage those consumers to put their dollars back into their local economies by patronizing their neighborhood merchants. But who's looking out for the weed users and dispensaries?

WeedMaps is. The company announced Wednesday that it's launching a daily deals program for medical marijuana, which will offer discounts of 25-60% off for end users from local dispensaries. (I love the site's daily deals page, by the way. How often have we all found ourselves sitting at our desks, twisting paperclips and doodling pictures of marijuana leaves?)

It doesn't work like Groupon or LivingSocial, however. Most daily deals sites grow to whale-like proportions by taking a hefty cut (reportedly in the range of 30-50%), but WeedMaps will not be taking a cut. In fact, to give pot dispensaries an incentive to provide discounts, WeedMaps is offering to skim the discount off of their coupon listing price. 

For example, the cost for a dispensary to run a discount promotion through Weedmaps will start at $995 per month in most metro areas, said WeedMaps founder Justin Hartfield. But the greater the discount, the more WeedMaps takes off of the list price. So if a dispensary offers a 50% off deal, WeedMaps will take 50% off that dispensary's coupon list price. 

Like other daily deal sites, WeedMaps will offer one deal per day, per region, but unlike other daily deal sites, WeedMaps will not charge users up front--which means that dispensaries will not be able to make the deal contingent upon a minimum number of purchases. 

The company recently relaunched WeedFreebies.com, a site where users can take part in a twice-daily contest to win free smoking accessories and other prizes. 

WeedMaps, a subsidiary of General Cannabis Inc., gets some six million page views each month, and the company generates an impressive $400,000 in monthly revenues with only 50,000 registered users.

WeedMaps was acquired by General Cannabis in November 2010 for an undisclosed amount, and founder Justin Hartfield became the company's chief Web officer.

Image source: legalmarijuanadispensary.com