Source: Dodi Blunts / Dodi Blunts
According to New Frontier Data, the legal cannabis market is currently poised to reach sales of $35 billion within the next four years and, with the booming trend of celebrity-backed marijuana brands like Jay-Z’s Monogram or DJ Khaled and Endexx, that number is almost certain to grow as we get closer to 2025.
So with that, another entrant has made his way to the arena: retired NFL running back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch. A popular fan of the herb, his product is called Dodi Blunts, 24-karat THC diamond-infused blunts that will each have to receive Lynch’s approval before they’re good to go.
On the company website, Lynch explains the interesting history of the company’s name: “In Oakland, we like to flip and twist s— into our own words. We basically create our own language. There’s ‘that stunk’ or that ‘Ooh-wee’ or summa that ‘good-good’—you know all types of names that they can call the tree, marijuana. Me and my cousins was f-cking around and muthaf-ckas pull up like… You got some of that dodi? And from then, it’s been dodi for me.”
Source: Dodi Blunts / Dodi Blunts
In another statement, he explained how he made the foray into the cannabis industry: “I’ve been around dodi most of my life. As I learned more about the business, the financial upside, the good that could be done, and the doors it could open, I knew it was something I needed to be rockin’ with.” According to Forbes Magazine, Dodi Blunts is projected to make as much as $10 million in its first year from sales of the blunts and other related merchandise. Lynch will also be 100% owner of the company, but he will have financial and operational backing from a Canadian firm called 2nd and Goal Ventures Inc.
However, a more in-depth look into the company reveals that it’s not simply a recreational or profit-driven hobby for Lynch. “Beast Mode” has consistently demonstrated social activism with his ventures, and in that vein, Dodi Blunts will be working with the Oakland-based nonprofit organization The Last Prisoner Project (LPP). The LPP works to reform unjust cannabis-related laws that have disproportionately targeted and damaged Black and Brown communities.
In fact, the partnership really resonates with someone like LPP Program Associate Evelyn LaChapelle. She spent seven years in federal prison because money made from the sale of marijuana was placed into her bank account.
LaChappelle says that through education about the dubious criminalization of marijuana and the unequal application of those laws, she better understood she really was a “victim of unjust laws and discriminatory policies. Through our work, the Last Prisoner Project aims to ensure that every last cannabis prisoner is released and able to rebuild their lives. I am so grateful to Marshawn and Dodi Blunts for further destigmatizing this plant and for committing to give back to those like myself who have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.”
Source: Dodi Blunts / Dodi Blunts
