Cannabooze

Some people think marijuana and alcohol go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

Camille Messina may be the first person in Oregon to turn that combination into a business.

Last year, the 35-year-old designer moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Portland's North Mississippi Avenue area and began working on a recipe for marijuana-infused bitters, an alcoholic herbal flavoring used in cocktails. In July, she founded Messina Bitters, a company that proposes to sell THC-laced digestif in 1-fluid-ounce dropper bottles.

"I'm the only incorporated bitters company that is cannabis-infused—worldwide," Messina says.

Messina is at the forefront of a growing trend. As states legalize marijuana, brewers and mixologists are experimenting with adding weed to drinks, either using tinctures like Messina's or soaking buds directly in the booze.

But state regulators, already stretching to implement marijuana legalization and deal with established permutations such as edibles, haven't begun to grapple with weed-booze drinks.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission—the agency that oversees both alcohol and recreational marijuana—has yet to hold a single public discussion of whether it will allow the two substances to be combined and sold in the same product.

"It's a gray area," says OLCC spokesman Mark Pettinger. "If you look at cannabis and look at alcohol, separately they may be OK. But that doesn't mean that mixed together, they are OK."

The signs don't augur well for Messina Bitters.

Federal regulators have barred brewers and distillers from spiking their products with "adulterated ingredients"—a category that probably includes cannabis. The OLCC has usually followed the feds' lead.

And the OLCC declared in July that it would not allow pot consumption in any location with a liquor license—a ban that forced High Times magazine to cancel a Cannabis Cup trade show in Oregon planned for this fall.

Messina is worried the state will bar her product or outlaw its use in mixed drinks. "I put my heart and soul into this," she says, "and I'm not sure where the OLCC will land."

Pot-infused drinks have been an open secret in Portland for years. Alex Ganum, who owns Portland's Upright Brewing, says home brewers often share batches of weed-infused beer.

"Homebrewed versions have been in existence for a long time," Ganum says. "No surprise there. A lot of home brewers are really tied into cannabis culture. We can expect a lot more interest in it now."

But Ganum and other brewers tell WW that commercial sales of marijuana-infused beer are "light years away" because the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau outlaws any drug added to alcoholic beverages.

That hasn't stopped entrepreneurs nationwide from trying. A San Francisco company, Mary Jane Wines, launched in 2013. Last month, a Colorado brewery debuted a cannabidiol oil-infused beer called Indica Double IPA. Bloomberg Business has declared marijuana "the next hot ingredient in cocktails."

Some health experts warn it's a bad idea.

Dr. Scott E. Lukas, director of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, says using alcohol and marijuana together can increase their effects, and cause intoxication to last longer.

"People have a drink and feel like they're fine to get into their cars," Lukas says. "That cannabis is also going to take effect when they're five miles down the road. I'm really concerned how this is going to play out when we legalize these cannabis products."

The Oregon Health Authority, which has run the state's medical marijuana program since 1998, tells WW it currently has no rules against products combining marijuana and alcohol.

"We don't have restrictions on this," says OHA spokeswoman Susan Wickstrom, "but we'd like to look into it."

Pettinger, the OLCC spokesman, says liquor commissioners will discuss the issue at a Sept. 25 meeting. He points to previous cases in which federal agencies have banned ingredients in alcoholic beverages—like the caffeine-spiked malt liquor Four Loko—and the OLCC has followed suit.

"There's nothing that prohibits people from buying ibuprofen," Pettinger says. "There's nothing that prohibits people from buying alcohol. We wouldn't let a brewer or a distiller add Advil to their product and sell it."

Messina says that comparison shouldn't apply to her bitters. The recipe contains only a small amount of THC—just 200 mg per ounce—along with cane alcohol, elderflower, birchbark and vanilla bean.

She says her bitters are good for more than just making cocktails more exotic.

Messina says alcohol is one of the most effective agents for extracting THC from the cannabis plant, and Messina Bitters could be a great way for medical patients to get their dose of the drug.

"It's pivotal to my business that the recipe I made is able to move forward," she says. "It's about being able to use the best possible ingredients to create the best bitters I can make."

Messina has gathered friends to try the bitters in cocktails—with happy results.

“There’s lots of laughing,” she says. “I generally am a little bit of a lightweight.” 

WWeek 2015