Mother of all highs

AT A soirée on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, one woman greets her fellow guests with a delicate bowl of vanilla sea-salt caramels, each one laced with marijuana. “It’s quite subtle,” she insists. “I just keep a few in my bag for when I’m feeling stressed out.” Over light chat about family and work, the group quickly cleaned up the bowl.

It is a scene Americans will be accustomed to by about 2025, according to Jazmin Hupp, head of Denver’s Women Grow society. “Once moms are on board, that’s it,” she explains, taking a drag on a hot pink e-cigarette filled with cannabis oil. Her battle cry explains the recent surge in products such as vegan weed bonbons, cannabis kale crisps, cannabis spiced almonds and “high tea”.

Cannabis is now legal for recreational use in four states and the District of Columbia, and for medical use in another 21. Colorado collected $44m in recreational marijuana taxes last year, and $72.5m in the first eight months of 2015. The state is on course to collect $109m for the year. But one crucial, and highly influential, group remains unconvinced.

Mothers do not fit neatly into the story of cannabis, which has as its protagonists Mexican drug lords, layabouts and rappers—all of them male. Even now, the leading figures in the legalisation movement are businessmen. Perhaps this is unsurprising. A drunk teenage son is one thing, but stoned as well?

Even so, those hoping to take the drug mainstream know they have to get mothers on their side. One way to do so is to emphasise the health benefits of the weed. According to a recent estimate, a third of American adults use alternative medicines. More and more research papers now promote cannabis as a natural substitute for pharmaceuticals. It has been credited with treating everything, from lethargy to cancer, simply by stimulating nerves. The federal government recently awarded $69m to the University of Mississippi to expand marijuana growth for medical research.

All this will count for little, however, so long as spliffs remain a cheeky teenage habit. Cue a new crop of faces on the market. Mary’s Medicinals sells fragrant lotions with a stylish leaflet on “the science behind cannabinoids”—chemical compounds inside the drug which, research suggests, have a soothing effect on the nervous system. Jill Amen and her son Trey are behind House Of Jane, a multi-state chain of cafés that offer “gourmet coffees, herbal teas, and fine edibles” laced with marijuana, with the tagline “medicate responsibly”. Alison Ettel’s Treatwell Health sells blueberry almond granola for customers in California. And Krystal Kitahara of Yummi Karma incorporates a small dose into condiments, sauces and spices to sprinkle on an evening meal. “I want it to feel like you could see it on a shelf at Trader Joe’s,” says Ms Kitahara, in reference to her balsamic vinaigrette, for which she has designed a delicate and colourful bottle.

Winning over mothers has long been a ploy to turbocharge sales, according to Maria Bailey and Bonnie Ulman, co-authors of “Trillion Dollar Moms”. Mothers control $1.6 trillion of direct consumer spending and influence the buying habits of their entire household. In politics, it was the soccer moms, newspapers declared in 1996, that returned Bill Clinton to the White House. And mothers tend to make a family’s medical decisions. If matriarchs can be persuaded that marijuana boosts rather than imperils health, cannabis caramels may one day be found stuck to the teeth of a grateful nation.