The order becomes a legal document
When a delivery service accepts your order, it does not simply appear on a driver's phone. It enters the state's track-and-trace system, where every gram is followed from the cultivator through the distributor to you.
Each product carries a package tag that stays with it through the entire chain. The moment your order is assembled, those tags are attached to a delivery manifest — a document listing exactly what is in the vehicle, what it is worth, and where it is going. A driver carrying inventory not on the manifest is carrying untracked cannabis, which is the thing the entire licensing regime exists to prevent.
Why the window is a window
Delivery drivers do not run one order at a time. A vehicle leaves with a manifest covering several orders and works a route, which is what makes delivery economically possible at all.
So your arrival estimate depends on where you fall in a route that is still being assembled when you order. Traffic, a slow ID check three stops ahead, or another customer not answering the door all propagate down the line. A service quoting a firm minute is guessing; one quoting a range is being honest about a route it does not fully control yet.
Most jurisdictions also cap the value a vehicle may carry at once. When a driver's manifest is full, later orders wait for the next run regardless of how close you are.
At the door
The driver checks a government-issued photo ID against the name on the order. This is not a formality they can waive as a favour — it is the condition of the licence, and delivery services are subject to compliance checks using underage decoys.
The recipient must be 21 or over, or 18 or over with a valid medical recommendation. Someone of age has to be physically present to receive it: the driver cannot leave cannabis on a doorstep, with a neighbour, or in a lobby.
Deliveries generally cannot be made to a public place, a school, a federal building, or, in most states, a college dormitory — student housing usually sits on land governed by federal rules, under which cannabis remains prohibited.
Cash, cards and the banking problem
Because cannabis is still federally controlled, most banks and both major card networks will not process the transactions. That is why so many services are cash-first, why card acceptance appears and disappears, and why ATM-style fees show up at the door.
It is worth confirming the payment method before the driver arrives rather than after.
When something is wrong
Check the package before the driver leaves. Every legal package carries a batch number that ties it to a certificate of analysis, and a mismatch between the label and the order is far easier to resolve at the door than by phone afterwards.
Return policies are narrower than in ordinary retail: once cannabis leaves a licensed premises it usually cannot re-enter inventory, so services handle problems with credits and replacements rather than restocking. Reputable ones handle them quickly, because a compliance complaint is a licence risk.