New Service Claims Selling Juice With A Side Of Weed Is Totally Legal

Apr 6th, 2016 12:59PM

A donation-based weed delivery service is claiming that it's totally legal under Initiative 71. Sound familiar?
Meet HighSpeed, "an on-demand cannabis and cold pressed juice delivery startup" branching into the D.C. market from Oakland, California. Here's how it works: you order juice on a sliding scale and get cannabis as a "gift." The "Just Juice" option is $11 and you get "some" marijuana on the side, says HighSpeed CEO David Umeh. "Love" costs $55, and "Lots of Love" will run you $150.
"You're getting a gift because you're showing us love," says Umeh. "If you show us more love, you might get a bigger gift." He says that the actual amount of marijuana might vary each time, though not by much. The size of the gift is "at our discretion." Generally, he says the "Love" option comes with about one eighth of an ounce of marijuana.
The bud comes from local greenhouses operating legally under Initiative 71, according to Umeh, though he declined to name them.
Under the legalization law implemented in February 2015, you can possess, purchase, and grow marijuana, but you can't sell it-which has created a limbo for marijuana entrepreneurs in D.C.
One such business, Kush Gods, also employed a "donation-based" system. The owner-operator, Nicholas Cunningham, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor distribution of marijuana charges last month, under a deal in which he promised not to engage in any pot related transactions regardless of payment. Still, at a protest on Saturday, Cunningham said that he and his employees "aren't going anywhere."
Matt Von Fricken, who was Cunningham's lawyer, says that he doesn't want to comment on the legality of another business like HighSpeed ("It's not my place to pre-emptively take the role of the government," he says), but he's not surprised to see more people taking a crack at commerce under Initiative 71.
Marijuana "businesses are being regulated on a case-by-case basis," Von Fricken, who is also the co-owner of Capital Hemp, says. "Until there's real direction, people are going to operate in a gray area."
Umeh acknowledges that his plan is "risky to a certain extent," but believes "it's an opportunity to make the right kind of example if I do this right." He says HighSpeed has had multiple lawyers review the idea before rolling it out.
He notes one major difference between his service and Kush Gods. "They never had an item that was not cannabis-related. We're a juice delivery startup," Umeh says. "We have a lot of people that literally buy just juice."
HighSpeed, which says it has been operating in D.C. since late January, claims that it already has more than 300 D.C. customers. It is working to partner with local businesses to expand its offerings beyond juice, Umeh says.
Juice offerings currently include Turmeric Tangerine Lemonade and Rose Water-none of which contain cannabis, though it comes on the side.
"I don't like infusing food with cannabis," says Umeh. "You can smoke good weed, and eat good food. Why mix the two?"

Leave a comment

You need to be logged in to add a comment. Not a member? Sign up now!

0 Comments

Sign Up

Join the world's fastest growing network
of Medical Marijuana Users and Businesses.

Log In

  • x
  • x