California Vineyards Now Producing Weed-Infused Wine, Are Cannabis-Laced Spirits Dangerous?

As 2014 continues, legal marijuana is becoming more of a reality for many states. As of now, twenty states and Washington D.C. have legalized the plant that former president Bill Clinton was rumored to favor in the White House. The Inquisitr has made sure to keep up with the latest news pertaining to the legalization of marijuana across the country and the benefits or repercussions thereafter. Apparently, there was a study that using marijuana may fight Alzheimer’s disease. In that case, patients diagnosed with the disease could have stocked up on Black Friday to find out if said studies were true.

Nevertheless, the legalization of marijuana doesn’t just give smokers the freedom to toke without fear of incarceration, but provides a range of goods that may have been unavailable beforehand. For vintners (winemakers) who own California vineyards, legal marijuana offers an opportunity to create and sell a brand, new product: weed-infused wine.

According to an article by David Bienenstock of Munchies/Vice, David met up with Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge, the spokeswoman for a high-end line of marijuana-infused “wine tinctures.” During their interview, Melissa gave her opinion on the business of fusing weed and wine and selling it as a product, especially since the company she is a spokeswoman for is one of the first.

“Cannabis and wine have both been around for thousands of years. But the notion of a commercial cannabis wine industry is brand-new. Even the idea of ganjapreneurs is still relatively new. So we’re on the front line of this thing.”

Amazingly, infusing wine with intoxicants is not a new idea. In his novel A Beginner’s Guide to Immortality, Carl Ruck explains how psychoactive substances have been incorporated into humanity’s spiritual development.

“Ancient wines were always fortified, like the ‘strong wine’ of the Old Testament, with herbal additives: opium, datura, belladonna, mandrake and henbane… [so] the easy availability and long tradition of cannabis use would have seen it included in the mixtures [too].”

David Bienenstock’s account turns to Lisa Molyneux, the creator of the weed-infused wine, explaining certain details on how it is made (which still sounds like an intricate science). Afterwards, it transitions to Melissa’s fondness of medical marijuana and how cannabis helped her endure chemotherapy during her battle with breast cancer. In a twist of fate, Lisa is also a cancer survivor which surely helped in the bonding of their relationship.

However, the one question that most people are asking is if fusing marijuana and alcohol is safe. CBS News tackled this question, reporting that marijuana is a hallucinogen and alcohol is a stimulant initially a potent depressant. The combination of both of them together may be dangerous because the additive marijuana will likely allow people to consume more alcohol than they normally would, potentially leading to breathing difficulties and low blood pressure. Also, marijuana is a schedule-1 controlled substance with a high potential of abuse in which the Drug Enforcement Administration has not accepted any medical value for treatment in the United States.

Still, weed-infused wine sounds like an interesting concept especially for those who love to drink and love to toke up. With the information provided in the article above, what do you think about California vineyard’s new product? Would you try out the new infusion of two different drugs out of curiosity?

[Featured image via Flickr and Post image via Bing]