Alcohol Companies Want to Make Disgusting Weed Drinks

The market for drinkable weed is all-but-nonexistent.

One And Done

Big beer companies are betting heavily on the future of drinkable THC, but it remains unclear exactly who they expect their customers to be.

Right now, marijuana drinks on the market include seltzers, beers, and lemonades — and they're all over the place in terms of THC content and generally pretty gross-tasting, according to an investigation by Amanda Chicago Lewis for The Verge. Right now, beverages make up just two to three percent of weed sales, raising the question of just who the emerging market is for.

Big Money

Lewis' investigation took her across California and Canada, highlighting both massively-funded THC beverage research and development firms as well as the equivalent of today's homebrewers peddling a lemonade that looked, Lewis reports, like a mix of milk and urine. Though marijuana is now legalized in California, many of the beverages she investigated began illicitly or continue to fly under the radar of state regulators.

That results in beverages that range from 2.5 milligrams of THC, perhaps for a weed-curious first-timer who feels like chugging several cans to get high, to 100 milligrams for regular cannabis enthusiasts who want to get obliterated. The bizarre variety is a perfect illustration of the messy, barely-regulated industry.

Doubling Down

In spite of, or perhaps because of all the confusion and hype, Molson Coors has invested $50 million in drinkable weed, per the investigation, and CEO Mark Hunter said he can increase the market tenfold.

But for now, the whole market seems like a gross, dank bubble.

READ MORE: Drink Up, Stoners [The Verge]

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