Coffee and Cannabis
Posted on: 2016-12-07 4:04 PM San Diego company Brewbudz plans to debut single-serving coffee pods that also hold cannabis. Each cup will contain 10 milligrams of the marijuana chemical THC for recreational users and up to 50 milligrams for people who need it for medical reasons, plus a jolt of “West Coast Roast” coffee so you can wake and bake.
The pods, which will cost $7 apiece, are designed to fit Keurig coffee brewers and will be completely compostable. So the company boasts on its website that the pods are therefore “good for you” and “good for the Earth.”
“It’s an opportunity to bring together two different rituals in life,” BrewBudz Vice President Jeffry Paul told Denver’s Westword magazine.
The company is due to launch sales in Nevada and Colorado in January and plans to expand to Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona by March.
The product is the latest to benefit from the increasing number of states legalizing medical and recreational use of the drug. Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population now lives in a state that has legalized marijuana.
Though California legalized medical marijuana 20 years ago, voters only approved it for recreational use last month. The state hopes to make $1 billion in sales tax revenues now from the pot business.
The federal government still considers the drug illegal and classifies pot as a Schedule I drug alongside heroin. President Barack Obama signaled he would lay off state marijuana laws as long as certain requirements were met, such as keeping pot businesses far from schools. The Department of Justice issued guidelines for states to follow.
It’s unclear how tolerant President-elect Donald Trump will be about state laws concerning marijuana. His pick for attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is strongly opposed to legalizing pot.
State Treasurer John Chiang has already reached out to Trump and California’s congressional delegation for guidance on how the state should regulate finances for the industry. Banking is a problem for outlaw organizations.
“Of primary concern to my office are the limits federal rules place on the cannabis industry’s ability to effectively participate in the state and nation’s banking system,” Chiang wrote to Trump last week. “We have a year to develop a system that works in California and which addresses the many issues that exist as a result of the federal-state legal conflict. Uncertainty about the position of your administration creates even more of a challenge.”
Chiang said this month that the conflict between state and federal governments “means a lot of businesses will be hauling around a lot of cash with no place to deposit their money and putting themselves at risk of robbery,” The Record reported.
Trump has yet to comment publicly on the matter. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra told The Record that his response to Trump would depend on how much the federal government is “trying to intrude on California’s sovereignty.”
