Whoopi Goldberg gets into ganja business
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) – Hollywood celebrity Whoopi Goldberg is branching out into the cannabis business with a line of medical marijuana products for women.
The comedian said Wednesday she had partnered with Maya Elisabeth, the founder of Om Edibles, to make products designed to provide relief for menstrual cramps under the “Whoopi & Maya” brand.
“This was all inspired by my own experience from a lifetime of difficult periods and the fact that cannabis was literally the only thing that gave relief,” Goldberg said in a statement.
She said four products will initially be sold at marijuana dispensaries in California — sipping chocolate, a balm, a bath soak and herbal tinctures that the company said have been favoured by British royals in the past.
“Even Queen Victoria found relief once a month with her favorite THC infused tincture,” the website says, referring to the chemical compound in marijuana.
Goldberg’s new venture comes at a time when marijuana sales are skyrocketing in the United States, with California one of the biggest markets.
According to ArcView Market Research, US sales of legal cannabis increased by 24 percent between 2014 and 2015 to reach $5.7 billion. The market in 2016 is expected to grow to $7.1 billion.
The drug remains illegal at the federal level in America but a number of states, including Colorado, Alaska and Washington, have legalised the use of both recreational and medicinal marijuana.
California voters this fall are also widely expected to vote in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana.
Goldberg has spoken openly about her use of medical marijuana in the past. In 2014 she wrote a column in The Cannabis magazine about her love for her vape pen which she said helped relieve her glaucoma-induced headaches.
She is not the only celebrity looking to cash in on the growing industry.
The family of reggae legend Bob Marley teamed up with a cannabis company in 2014 to produce a brand called Marley Natural.
Rapper Snoop Dogg, who has boasted he smoked pot in a bathroom at the White House, also signed up with a company to produce his own series of vaporizer products.
