New breed of ganjapreneurs set out to gentrify dagga use

VISIT a dispensary in one of the 28 states in the US that legally sell dagga and you’re likely to find products with names such as God’s Green Crack, Super Lemon Haze and Skywalker.

But that’s all about to change as a new breed of ganjapreneurs swoop in to the fledgling industry and, in a classic consumer-marketing move, get rid of stoner slang.

They are replacing it with supermarket-friendly names that purport to help customers live better. Their message: weed is no longer just for getting high. It’s to help you through your stress, ease you into sleep and get you in the mood for love.

These marketers want to transform the image of marijuana so that it competes with scores of products already in bottle stores, markets and pharmacies.

“I think of our competition not as other edibles,” said Peter Barsoom, a former Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley manager who is now CEO of 1906, a company that makes dagga-infused chocolates. “It’s that cup of coffee in the morning, it’s the pill of Ambien to help you sleep, it’s that cup of chamomile tea.”

Legal marijuana sales are projected to grow to $18-billion (about R240-billion) in the next four years from $7-billion, according to Arcview Market Research, and a small group of companies are racing to broaden dagga’s appeal.

The first step is lowering potency and classifying weed according to specific mood-enhancing qualities.

Then it gets down to good oldfashioned brand segmentation. 1906 — named for the year US statutes first cracked down on marijuana — is introducing products with names such as Go (an energy booster), Pause (for kicking back), Midnight (a sleep aid), Present (to focus) and High Love (for arousal).

Whether they actually deliver such altered states is almost beside the point. Barsoom’s reasoning is that a new generation of consumers will flock to stylish cannabis offerings to deal with life’s ailments and annoyances.

Lowering the amount of drug per hit, bite or swallow is paramount for appealing to new consumers, according to Mike Ray, a former Wall Street trader and founder of Bloom Farms, which makes pre-filled vape pens and pre-rolled joints.

“I think micro-dosing is the way of the future,” he said.

Matt Seashols, for one, was frustrated that he couldn’t go to a dispensary in California and get something that would give him a specific feeling without getting so high it would knock him out of commission. So he co-founded hmbldt, named for Humboldt County, the unofficial dagga capital of the state. The company makes pre-filled vape pens for specific “need state solutions”: bliss, calm, relief and sleep.

Hmbldt also claims to make highs easier to control, by designing its vape pen to vibrate after the user has inhaled 2.25mg of oil. By comparison, most edible products have 5mg doses.

Ray’s father bought a property called Bloom Farms in Northern California in the 1970s and hosted a hippie commune there. Now, Ray is using the farm’s name as the masthead for a new kind of cannabis business — one that makes products that would fit in at a Whole Foods grocery store or a suburban boutique.

The packaging for its Highlighter, a cannabis-oil vapour pen, does not scream stoner. It’s made of recycled paper embossed with black writing and an artfully designed marijuana leaf. The oils come with designations such as daytime, nighttime and anytime. “It’s the new cocktail: it’s the new ladies’ night out,” said Ray.

Such talk was part of a necessary shift in brand positioning, 1906’s Barsoom said, to make cannabis products more like wine. “For those who have kids, it gives them a chance after they put the kids to bed to take the chocolate and know they’re not going to be blasted. Most of us don’t have six hours to have a date with an edible.” — Bloomberg

The oils come with designations such as daytime, nighttime and anytime