Cheech and Chong, iconic cannabis comedians, have built a booming $100 million cannabis business, not in California, but in states like Texas. Despite their marijuana roots in Los Angeles, the duo has shifted to selling federally legal hemp products, avoiding Californiaโs strict regulations and high taxes, according to SFGate. Their hemp drinks are now in 2,000 Circle K stores, and theyโve opened multiple hemp dispensaries in Texas. As Californiaโs legal cannabis market struggles, Cheech and Chongโs success highlights the advantages of the unregulated hemp industry and the broader challenges facing marijuana businesses in the state. They write:
California helped catapultย Cheech and Chong intoย the stratosphere of marijuana celebrities. Their 1978 movie, โUp in Smoke,โ chronicled the comedy duoโs hijinks across Los Angeles and invented the entire genre of stoner comedy.
But when it comes to cashing in on legal cannabis, the comedy duo has found a winning formula by looking to states like Texas instead of California. […]
Chong and Marinโs two cannabis companies are on track to make $100 million in revenue this year, up from $50 million last year, with the majority of that money coming from hemp sales, according to a profile in Forbesย this week.ย Hemp is illegal to sell in California, meaning the stateโs two most famous stoners are having booming success by avoiding the state. The comedy duo has a deal to sell its hemp drinks at 2,000 Circle K convenience stores across the country, and it already has six hemp dispensaries in Texas alone, according to Forbes. […]
Success might be calling from out of state, but Californiaโs original stoner doesnโt seem to have strayed too far from his roots.
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