Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson is right about one thing: over time, marijuana will be legal in more and more states, thereby creating a problem for our federal government.
Quite a few parties are trying to make money on this trend before it officially hits, and Anomaly appears to be one of them. Today the MDC Partners shop announced that it had been working for a couple of years on “bringing [a] new company from inception of idea all the way to market,” with the company in question being a marijuana startup called hmbldt (you know, like Humboldt county).
This isn’t your weird uncle’s weed, though, and it isn’t Gary Johnson’s, either. Check this stuff out:
It almost looks like … medicine.
Anomaly founding partner Jason DeLand is a board member at hmbldt, which offers the user four varieties of cannabis-derived concoctions to address various challenges like insomnia, anxiety and whatever the opposite of “bliss” happens to be.
The press release tells us that “Humans and cannabis have a long, symbiotic relationship, however medical professionals have struggled to design therapeutic treatments that are reliable and repeatable.”
hmbldt believes that it has reversed that trend by way of “precise formulations of major and minor cannabinoids and terpenes found in cannabis to deliver targeted benefits” while also “miniz[ing] the side effects sometimes associated with cannabis use” such as the belief that South Park is still funny.
This all stems from the idea that “cannabis is the only non-toxic therapy that is powerful enough to replace common pharmaceuticals,” and the current method of delivery is a vape pen. And it’s not a joke.
According to the release, this stuff will soon be available in oral spray form as well.
So the hmbldt guys have essentially used some real science to separate the good stuff in weed from the bad stuff, then create unique combinations of the former to treat specific health matters.
The larger story here is about Anomaly’s adventures outside of the world of advertising, and the release also clarifies that the agency has no time for your pothead jokes: “Anomaly’s interest in cannabis is medicinal. Our passion is driven by raising the quality of life for real people with real needs: young children with Dravet Syndrome, veterans suffering from PTSD, business executives lagged by constant insomnia and people of all walks of life slave to dangerous and highly addictive pain and anxiety meds. Our interest is not in getting high, is not about the singular cannabinoid of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Rather our interest is in the other 5 cannabinoids and hundreds of terpenes and their functions that can make people’s lives better.”
That’s cool, we get it. hmbldt’s core team includes one of the founders of Oracle’s software unit, and its products will go on sale at “select medicinal dispensaries” this month with plans to expand to the three states that have legalized recreational weed as well as Nevada.
Most importantly, “Anomaly has not invested hard cash into hmbldt. Anomaly is being paid based on success of the hmbldt sales though a royalty of products sold.”
If that approach works for McDonald’s, it can certainly work for weed startups. We personally don’t get the need to dress it all up, but whatever gets you where you need to be.