DRINK UP: Breck Speed and David Owen developed Lark, a beverage infused with natural hemp-derived Delta-9 THC. (Photo courtesy of David Owen)

The folks behind Arkansas’s newest medical marijuana processor are preparing for what could be the next big thing in cannabis: beverages.  

Former Mountain Valley Spring Water executive Breck Speed and Ouachita Farms owner David Owen are behind High Speed Extracts, the recently-approved processor near Hot Springs Village that is set to open as soon as this month. 

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The pair are no strangers to the cannabis beverage industry. Owen and Speed have developed several beverages, including Lark, which uses hemp-derived THC and is sold in close to 400 locations across Arkansas. Speed, a veteran of the bottled water industry, has teamed up with Cameron Meshell, who has developed a way to make cannabis water-soluble so it mixes easily in water without taste or smell. 

Speed and Owen are bullish on the future of cannabis beverages, although they say they’ll be making other cannabis products at the Arkansas facility first.

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BEVERAGE BUSINESS: Breck Speed, the former CEO of Mountain Valley Spring Water, has plenty of experience in the beverage industry. (Photo courtesy of Breck Speed)

The cannabis beverage market is already big at more than $1.2 billion a year but it’s expected to grow to more than $5.8 billion a year in the next 10 years, according to one report. 

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Speed said he believes cannabis will become federally legal and cannabis beverages will become a large part of the market and possibly the largest part of it. Drinking is a healthier form of consumption than smoking, Speed said, and it’s familiar to consumers. 

“We think it’s going to be a big part of the market,” he said. 

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Major alcohol producers Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson Coors have even dipped a toe into the market with CBD drinks, although they’ve since gotten out. Their distributors continue to stock cannabis beverages, though, Owen said. 

There’s also a line of Pabst Blue Ribbon THC seltzers in five fruity flavors, although the products are made by former Pabst employees in California and not by the Milwaukee brewery. 

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In Arkansas, Owen’s Lark drinks are carried by Moon Distributors and Central Distributing, traditional alcohol distributors who have helped get the drinks in close to 400 locations, including bars, convenience stores and restaurants.  

The drinks are made using hemp-derived Delta-9 THC and aren’t sold in medical marijuana dispensaries. Owen previously used Delta-8 THC but that substance has come under greater legal scrutiny lately and was banned by the Arkansas state legislature last month along with some other hemp-derived products. Owen says he believes his drinks, made with natural Delta-9 THC, will still be allowed when the Arkansas law goes into full effect on August 1. 

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Speed said he’s only interested in working with customers who are playing “strictly by the letter of the law” and he believes the drinks he’s developed will continue to be legal in Arkansas. 

“We don’t use chemically altered or manufactured products,” Speed said. “We use just what’s naturally available in the plant. Delta-8 is not Delta-9 and Delta-9 is what is allowed in the farm bill.” 

Speed said he’s fine with the Arkansas bill that banned Delta-8. 

The Lark drinks have five milligrams of natural hemp-derived THC, which is the low dose of THC that Owen and Speed said consumers want. 

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Cann, a leading cannabis beverage, markets its drinks as a “social tonic,” which Speed said is where the market is heading. Owen said the low-dose THC drinks haven’t taken hold in dispensaries where higher-dose drinks make up most of the market. In other locations, like bars and restaurants, lower dose social beverages have been successful. 

“Their idea is to be a light uplift social tonic,” Speed said. “I think that’s brilliant positioning where people can always go and have a good experience.” 

Speed has been in the beverage industry since 1988 when he started Clear Mountain Water Company. In 2004, along with prominent Arkansas businessman JB Hunt, he bought Mountain Valley Spring Water and operated that until he sold it to a private equity firm in 2014. Since then, Speed has continued to work in the beverage industry in Louisiana. 

In 2019, Speed started Farmington Research with Cameron Meshell who has developed a way to make cannabinoids water soluble so they mix better in water without taste or smell. 

Their business, like Owen’s, is based on the Texas side of Texarkana where they say hemp laws are more favorable than in Arkansas. They’ve worked on cannabis beverage projects in a number of states but Owen thinks Minnesota might provide the best “peak into the future” of them all. 

In Minnesota, cannabis beverages are sold in grocery stores and many breweries are making THC seltzers, he said. A distributor even told him he was selling more of the THC-infused Trail Magic drinks than Bud Light and that was before conservatives started smashing Bud Light cans with righteous indignation. Trail Magic has four flavors that have three or five milligrams of THC. 

In addition to Lark, Owen has produced a seltzer called Ave (pronounced ah-vay) that includes five milligrams of Delta-9 THC and five milligrams of CBD. Owen sipped on one during a recent interview. 

LIME TIME: David Owen sipped on an Ave seltzer during a recent interview. (Photo courtesy of David Owen)

Owen has also produced a non-THC beverage called Night Lark that uses nonpsychoactive cannabinoids CBD and CBN. Owen hopes getting that beverage into distribution will help him create good relationships with distributors if they ever decide to carry THC beverages. 

NIGHT LARK: David Owen developed the Night Lark beverage with non psychoactive cannabinoids CBD and CBN and hopes to build relationships with distributors. (Photo courtesy of David Owen)

The only cannabis-infused beverages sold in Arkansas dispensaries are under the Wynk brand, which is produced by BOLD Team in Cotton Plant, although there are some drink mixes produced by other Arkansas cultivators. The Wynk drinks are made by BOLD on a mobile facility that Wynk rolls in on an 18-wheeler periodically and not in a full-scale bottling facility. 

Speed said it’s difficult for producers to justify the large-scale expense of a production facility in a limited to medical marijuana market. In Arkansas, for instance, there are 38 dispensaries that could sell medical marijuana beverages. 

“The biggest issue is, here in Arkansas, there are 38 potential customers,” he said. “Are you going to put in a bottling plant and a licensed production facility for 38 customers? No,” he said. 

Even in a large state like California, the number of customers is limited. As markets open and become able to ship across state lines in the future, the market will change dramatically, he said. 

At their new Arkansas facility, Speed and Owen plan to make cannabis beverages that will be sold in Arkansas dispensaries. The pair will make some drink products, such as mixes, in their first phase and canned drinks in the next phase of the business in about a year. Speed said he has relationships with some national cannabis beverage companies that are interested in the Arkansas market. 

Speed said the keys to the development of the beverages are precise dosing and relatively rapid onset. 

“If they enjoy that experience, then they will make that a part of their lifestyle like wine and spirits,” he said. 

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