At the same time, mCig is trying to hedge its bets with products that don’t involve marijuana at all. It’s releasing the VitaCig, a $2 e-cig that the company claims vaporizes vitamins with fruit or spearmint flavors. The company is pitching the product as serving two purposes—providing an alternative for people who can’t or don’t want to swallow vitamins in pill form, and also as an aid to stop smoking.
“People who are trying to quit smoking can use this product to satisfy their hand-to-mouth motion and not go back to smoking cigarettes,” said Khari Bryan, who helped develop the product as part of mCig’s medical advisory board. One could argue it could also do the opposite, leading someone to move from vaporizing vitamins on to something else.
“What’s remarkable about the cannabis industry now is the opportunity for people to come in and not even touch the plant itself,” said Oaksterdam’s Sky Jones. She believes the risk in the industry is now moving away from legal concerns “and starting to go into the nice, normal business risk that every business has to tolerate.”
Perhaps, but the entire industry is coming out from the shadows knowing it could all go back underground at the whim of the Department of Justice. Much of mCig’s business model, and that of the legion of marijuana start-ups, assumes that the momentum behind marijuana legalization doesn’t stall, let alone the building backlash against electronic cigarettes.
Read More Pot industry pioneers: The e-cigarette of legal pot
“It’s always in the back of my mind, I won’t lie to you, but to say that I’m worried about it and I think about it every day, I don’t,” said Vapolution’s Lucey. “Marijuana’s not going anywhere. It’s been around for a long time, and whether the Justice Department says it’s legal or it’s not legal, people are still going to continue to use it.”
In the meantime, mCig continues to experiment with new products that might sell regardless of pot laws. Up next, the company hopes to roll out the LiqCig, which will vaporize alcohol.
“We’ve got some things in the pipeline, so to say,” Linkhorst said, without a hint of irony.
—By CNBC’s Jane Wells.
Pot start-ups: Public companies make smokeless marijuana and more - CNBC.com
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