‘Every hit earns crypto’? App that gives users Bitcoin for getting stoned deemed ‘dangerous’ and ‘unethical’

A California-based cannabis vape pen company that says it rewards customers with crypto for using its product is raising alarm among health experts and anti-drug campaigners.

Gudtrip advertises itself as building a user-powered network that combines cannabis, Bitcoin, and artificial intelligence.

“Every hit earns crypto,” a tagline on the company’s website reads.

Customers who buy one of the company’s cannabis vape pens can connect it to an app, which rewards them with Bitcoin, and points for using the pen. “Checking-in” daily creates streaks which increase points earned by up to 200%.

Several researchers studying cannabis consumption who spoke to DL News said encouraging daily use is potentially dangerous and habit-forming, raising ethical concerns.

“Gamifying cannabis use? It certainly sounds like habit-formation is the goal,” Joshua Gowin, an associate professor who studies the effects of frequent cannabis use at the University of Colorado Anschutz, told DL News.

“Linking a reward to a puff/smoking session reinforces the behaviour, increasing the chance of escalating use and even developing an addiction,” Janna Cousijn, head of the Neuroscience of Addiction Lab at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, told DL News.

“It is potentially a very dangerous and unethical device that could stimulate the development of addiction,” she said.

A Gudtrip spokesperson told DL News the company is “deeply mindful” of the risks associated with cannabis products and that its product…