LOS ANGELES — In Los Angeles, where medical marijuana dispensaries outnumber Starbucks and McDonald’s restaurants combined, a mood-altering beverage with a Cannabis-oriented marketing campaign is gaining traction.
Southern California has become the best-selling market for Mary Jane’s Relaxing Soda, a sugary drink laced with Kava, a South Pacific root purported to have sedative properties.
Matt Moody, a Denver nutritional supplement developer who created the beverage, said the name is an unabashed reference to weed, though the relaxant compounds in Kava are chemically unrelated to those in marijuana.
Along with new drinks like Slow Cow and Ex Chill, Mary Jane’s is part of a new group of so-called slow-down or anti-energy drinks. They’re expected to be one of the top food trends of 2010, according to advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.
They rely on herbal sedatives, including kava, chamomile and valerian, to provide an alternative to energy drinks such as Red Bull.
