Scotts Miracle-Gro Looks at Medical Marijuana Market

Rumors have circled for years regarding corporate plans to monetize it after they legalize it (the eternal it being weed), but surely actual corporate interest in farming marijuana shows promise that the controversial plant is becoming more widely accepted, at least for medicinal use?

One of the first big names to step up to the plate might surprise you. The CEO of Scotts, the company behind products like Miracle-Gro, talked to the Wall Street Journal about plans to zero in on the medical marijuana market:

“I want to target the pot market,” [Scotts Chief Executive Jim] Hagedorn said in an interview. “There’s no good reason we haven’t.”

Hagedorn is described in the article as straightforward and unafraid of risk- the type of guy who would have less of a problem rebranding “weed killer” as “killer weed” than other suits might:

The idea to merge with Scotts dawned on him after he looked at the company’s market value in 1995, he said, so he called his father’s tax lawyer to vet the idea. “I said, ‘Bob, I got this f— crazy idea. Do you think it’d be f— possible to take over Scotts?'” he recalls, sitting in the Port Washington office that his father once occupied.

If the idea moves forward, it would be interesting to see which big names are next to jump aboard the doob gravy train. Medical marijuana remains illegal under federal drug laws, but agencies have harshed less mellow on a state level since Obama took office.