Edible Arrangements Can Now Get You High—On Edibles

Forbes

he company known for its festive fruit baskets just launched a new website for hemp-derived, THC-infused beverages and gummies.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2025/03/20/edible-arrangements-can-now-get-you-high-on-edibles/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, edible arrangements can now get you high on edibles.

00:07Edible Brands, the parent company of the fruit basket outfit Edible Arrangements,

00:12is taking a bite of the cannabis industry.

00:15The Georgia-based company, which had $500 million in annual sales last year,

00:20launched Edibles.com last week, an e-commerce site that sells hemp-derived THC products

00:26made by some of the biggest brands in the marijuana industry, including Juana, Kiva, and Cann.

00:32Edible Brands is not selling marijuana, which is federally illegal,

00:36but is focusing on THC products derived from hemp,

00:40marijuana's less potent and federally legal cannabis cousin.

00:44But these products are still strong enough to get customers stoned.

00:49Edible Brands CEO Samia Fareed Silber tells Forbes,

00:54This is a really natural fit for us. We're already called edible, right?

00:58We know that sometimes there's even a little bit of an expectation from a customer for cannabis products.

01:04Edibles.com, which the company acquired last year, will launch in Texas first,

01:09but will soon expand to Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina,

01:13and expects to go nationwide later this year.

01:17With its network of more than 700 Edible Arrangements stores,

01:21the company says customers can order online

01:23and get their cannabis products delivered to their door faster than an old-school pot dealer.

01:28Silber says,

01:39Because marijuana is still illegal at the federal level,

01:42but hemp has enough THC to get someone high,

01:45Some of the weed industry's biggest players have started selling hemp products outside of dispensaries.

01:51The hemp and marijuana industry used to be at war,

01:54but over the last year some of the biggest cannabis companies,

01:57from Cureleaf and Trulieve to Kiva and Juana,

02:00have embraced the federal legality of hemp-derived cannabinoids

02:04thanks to the 2018 Farm Bill and started selling their own products.

02:09The hemp products industry is even bigger than the marijuana sector,

02:12which has been throttled by a punitive federal tax code for drug traffickers

02:16and over-regulation on the state level.

02:19In 2023, hemp product sales hit $28 billion,

02:23while marijuana sales topped $26 billion, according to Whitney Economics.

02:29Joe Hodes, the CEO of Juana, one of the country's best-selling edibles manufacturers,

02:34says he sees hemp as a way to expand to states that do not have recreational marijuana laws.

02:40Juana has also started selling its hemp-derived THC beverage line in Total Wine stores.

02:46This is not the first time edible brands dipped into the cannabis space.

02:50In 2019, Edible Arrangements launched its own CBD Edibles line, which are not psychoactive.

02:57But this pivot to THC is even more bold,

03:00and it's a signal that cannabis products, especially edibles and beverages, have gone mainstream.

03:07In 1999, Pakistani immigrant Tariq Fareed launched the first Edible Arrangements store in Connecticut.

03:14Now based in Georgia, the company has become the go-to fruit basket gifting company

03:18by selling chocolate-covered strawberries, cookies, and bouquets of cut fruit

03:23for birthdays, anniversaries, funerals, and other life milestones.

03:28In addition to its franchise stores across the U.S.,

03:31Edible Brands also owns FreshFruit.com and Roti, a fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain.

03:38Edible Brands is going headlong into the political battle over THC hemp products currently underway in Texas.

03:45Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is leading a push to shutter the industry,

03:49which is composed of more than 8,000 hemp shops across the state.

03:53Last week, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would ban all products containing THC,

03:58including gummies, vapes, flour, and beverages.

04:02The bill has not become law as the House still needs to vote on its proposal,

04:06which would regulate, not eliminate, the state's hemp market.

04:10None of this is stopping Edible Brands.

04:13The company is also building a flagship edible store in downtown Atlanta.

04:18The company will own the first few hemp product stores under this concept,

04:21but will eventually open the model up to franchisees.

04:26For full coverage, check out Will Yakowitz's piece on Forbes.com.

04:31This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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