Anheuser-Busch heir shuns beer for push into cannabis

One of beer’s most famous names is opting for Colorado cannabis.

Adolphus Busch V, the 27-year-old great-great-grandson of the beer magnate Adolphus Busch, has launched a line of disposable marijuana vape pens, under the brand ABV Cannabis.

Busch pivoted to pot after being turned down for a job at the family business because of a new nepotism rule implemented after InBev’s takeover of Anheuser-Busch. Busch then returned to Colorado, where he attended college, and has been in the cannabis industry ever since.

For a time, Busch worked selling a line of cannabis-infused soda called Keef Cola, before starting his own company with funding from his father. Colorado was the first U.S. state to legalize cannabis for recreational use by adults and there are an estimated 500 retail stores there.

The ABV vape pens are now in about two dozen stores. Busch decided to focus on the product because of growing popularity among cannabis users who want to avoid smoking.

“I realized it was a volume product,” Busch said in an interview.

The pending legalization of marijuana in Canada, and the loosening of rules in several U.S. states and other international markets, is driving an investment boom in the burgeoning industry.

To contact the reporter on this story: Craig Giammona in New York at cgiammona@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anne Riley Moffat at ariley17@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Roeder, Lisa Wolfson