By Marcus Woodruff
Northside News
It’s the end of the workday, and it’s time to pour yourself a Lush Llama, or maybe a Pink Panda. Or maybe, you’re ready for a tall, iced beaker of Mary Jane’s Mule. Welcome to the world of Cannabis Cocktails.
“We got our first cannabis infused product almost two years ago,” said the manager of Lakewood Plaza’s Vic Pierce Liquors. “It used to be on one little shelf. But now, with the growing supply and demand, it takes up five shelves. I’ve had to move some popular microbrews out to make room.”
The products are infused with 5mg–25mg of Delta 9 THC, sometimes combined with CBD. “CBD comes from low-grade hemp plants,” said Brook Bartels, owner/operator of Madison Extracts, a professional lab and hemp store across from MATC. “It’s used for pain relief, sleeplessness or anxiety. Delta 9 is THC. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana. It will get you high.”
Northgate Shopping Center’s Kwik Spirits, one of a handful of new Kwik Trip stores specializing in tobacco and liquor, is a newcomer to the cannabis trade. “We’ve only got a few brands now, but we’re going to get more,” said Erin, a Kwik Trip Coworker who praises the product. “I had a good friend with a bad drinking problem,” she said. “He switched from booze to hemp, and he’s been clean for quite a while.”
Ray, owner of Northside Town Center’s OG Liquor, has limited shelf space and sells a few brands, but is willing to expand. “If my customers say they want it, I will get it.”
All the sales associates I talked to recommend inexperienced customers start with the 5mg dose and work their way up when they’ve acclimated to the effects. And the products will soon be more readily available as other Northside retailers are entering the market.
“I was really surprised when Kwik Trip started selling cannabis products,” mused Kwik Spirit’s Erin. “But I guess they see the future. Cannabis is here to stay.”
