Medical marijuana users getting pot soft drink

[RoachClip]

Medical marijuana users getting pot soft drink

SOQUEL, Calif. — A California entrepreneur has plans to market a line medical marijuana soft drinks.

Clay Butler says he plans to supply medical marijuana dispensaries with his soda pot, which contains the psychoactive marijuana ingredient THC.

Marijuana drinks are already showing up here and there, but Butler says he thinks his branding savvy will make his product a hit.

Besides his flagship cola drink, Canna Cola, he will also produce Dr. Pepper-like Doc Weed, lemon-lime Sour Diesel, grape-flavored Grape Ape and orange-flavored Orange Kush.

A 12-ounce bottle will cost $10 to $15.

The Soquel-based commercial artist tells the Santa Cruz Sentinel that he doesn't do drugs or need medical marijuana for any ailments.

Information from: Santa Cruz Sentinel.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/

 

[Kcar]

Yeah, but they've been around for a long time...

 

[RoachClip]

So has burgers but we still eat them

That's some collection Kcar, I feel if they work that's a plus and if not then just avoid them all together..

 

[rick shaw]

I have always wondered about artists vs commercial artists. Now I see somebody that doesn't get high nor have a medical issue is charging $15 for a knock off soda,that should wash down the taste of the $10 cookie and $65 eighth.

 

[Sandnut]

its all about the money, should we be glad for this? lol

 

[RoachClip]

I agree I seen the Article and copied it and figured I would just share the news so any feedback, complaints, take it up with the vato who's making the product I just thought I was doing something positive by sharing the article with med patients here no harm no foul.

 

[walt cunningham]

i love how he is selling a product he has never tried nor ever will. what a douche

 

[HempKat]

Soda Pot

Soda Pot

I found this story this morning about a guy who is going to start marketing medical marijuana soft drinks. I thought it interesting enough to post here.

Pot meets pop: Local entrepreneur plans to market line of smartly branded medical-marijuana soft drinks

SOQUEL -- How strange is the emerging world of medical-marijuana entrepreneurship?

Consider Clay Butler, who may soon be marketing a food product that he's never tasted, and that he would never buy. The product is called Canna Cola, and it's a soft drink that contains THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, aimed at medical marijuana dispensaries.

"I don't do drugs," said the Soquel-based commercial artist. "Never have. I never drank, never smoked. I'm a clean-living guy. I've had two beers in my whole life, and I remember them both too. No marijuana, I've never smoked a cigarette. I take an aspirin when I get a headache. That's it."

Yet, Butler is a partner in a company that is poised to move aggressively in a market that could one day be enormously popular by combining pot with soda pop, two products widely seen as scourges by many Americans -- though those upset by one tend to be approving or indifferent to the other.

"Even though, personally, I'm not interested and I don't think it's right for me," said Butler, "I'm a firm believer that adults have an inalienable right to think, eat, smoke, drink, ingest, decorate, dress any way they choose to do so. It's your life; it's your body."

What really intoxicates Butler is branding, the art of differentiating a product in the marketplace through words and images. And he's designed a line of soda pop that he says will be branded to take advantage of an entirely new market. The line

includes the flagship cola drink Canna Cola, the Dr Pepper-like Doc Weed, the lemon-lime Sour Diesel, the grape-flavored Grape Ape and the orange-flavored Orange Kush.

Marijuana sodas do exist in the marketplace. But, said Butler, none of them have the branding savvy of his product.

"You look at all the marijuana products out there, and they are so mom-and-pop, hippie-dippy and rinky-dink," he said. "If someone can put every color on the rainbow on it, they do. If they can pick the most inappropriate and unreadable fonts, they will. And there's marijuana leaves on everything. It's a horrible cliché in the industry."

Butler's epiphany was to market the THC-laced sodas "how Snapple or Coca-Cola or Minute Maid would make a marijuana beverage, if they ever chose to do it."

Thus, he used the marijuana leaf -- it's an unavoidable part of the "brand DNA" of marijuana products, he said -- but he designed a leaf made of bubbles, to suggest soda pop.

The beverage line's dosage of THC will be "somewhere between 35 to 65 milligrams," said Scott Riddell, the founder of Diavolo Brands, which is marketing Canna Cola. He said the levels of THC in his line of soft drinks will be substantially below the levels of many drinks now on the market. He likened his product to a "light beer" alongside high-proof liquors.

"It's got a mild marijuana taste," Riddell said. "But the taste factor is really negligible compared to some competitors with three times the THC. When you get to that level, you really have a heavy aftertaste."

The new sodas will retail for between $10 and $15 per 12-ounce bottle.

The company plans to launch its product in medical marijuana-friendly Colorado in February. California, however, remains a wild card. Plans are tentatively to have it in California dispensaries in the spring.

But, Riddell said, he is concerned about a bill in Congress, the so-called Brownie Law SB 258, which would double the penalties for anyone who produces a product that combines marijuana with "a candy product" or markets it to minors. The bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, passed the Senate last summer and is currently in the House. The bill poses a threat to all so-called "medibles," food products containing THC, Riddell said.

Working in the medical marijuana field presents entrepreneurs with unique challenges. The use of marijuana for any purpose is still illegal in federal law, despite various state laws regarding its medicinal use. As a result, the soda cannot be transported across state lines. Canna Cola sold in California would have to be manufactured in California. The company also has to conform to a wide range of county and municipal laws regarding medical marijuana.

And then there's the supplier factor. Butler said that his company has had to inform all of its suppliers -- bottles, caps, the shrink-wrap labels that go on each bottle -- about the nature of their product. Many have balked.

"We tell everyone flat out what the product is. We can't have a supplier finding out after the fact and saying, We can't be involved in this.' Not everyone will take your job," he said. "Of course, if we're selling cigarettes or alcohol or Vicodin or Viagra, it would be fine."

Assuming the Canna Cola line becomes profitable selling to dispensaries, its business profile will change dramatically if marijuana should ever become decriminalized on a federal level. If that were to happen, Butler doubts the food-industry behemoths will dive into the market immediately.

"My suspicion is that, if some day it is decriminalized, and you can get marijuana products in a liquor store or a 7-Eleven, I really don't think it would be the big established food companies that would get involved," Butler said. "I could see them buying out existing brands, which is a lot easier for them anyway. I think the market is going to the early pioneers."

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_17179763?source=most_viewed

 

[Tripsick]

They had all these types of snacks and drinks since the Dispensaries opened in CO.
So far i think the Ice Cream is the best.

Then there is real medicine and its called Wax.. Remember Wax lips and teeth as a kid? well its even better than those.
But its pricey

 

[SOTF420]

So where is the Grapefruit flavored one with Sweet Tooth in it?

 

[HighDesertJoe]

So where is the Grapefruit flavored one with Sweet Tooth in it?

 

[SOTF420]

*makes note to self about new grapefruit soda project*

 

[RoachClip]

Also we can't forget to make Cannabis Flavored Nacho's & Taco's..

 

[!!!]

What's in Canna Cola?

What's in Canna Cola?

35-65mg of THC with a slight weed taste. What's in this soda specifically, to carboxylate and dissolve the THC?

edit: found out it's likely glycerin. Kinda obvious..

http://www.drinkcannacola.com/

 

[humble1]

I don't know, I had some prescription cannabis kool-aid and it was sooooper nasty!

 

[Mrs.Babba]

We have been selling those at the dispensary I work at for a while now, they are not cheap either...$10 to $17 bucks here.

 

[kstampy]

I have tried 3 of them, they're almost as bad as drinking Jack Daniels straight out of the bottle, coming from an ex/recovering alcoholic with an iron stomache lol. I had to force myself to down it, the third sat in the fridge forever until I forced myself to try it again... no dice. 15 bucks each for very little buzz when two of my own cookies from budder gives me double vision. I'd rather force myself to down a bottle of the glycerin and trip out. The only thing that tastes good in liquid form that I have tried is the THC infused milk/ice cream (not the horrible ice cream that people use melted budder in lol... butter in ice cream???????). From what I read on these forums a while back it seems quite easy check it out.