Exploding Pot Soda Pulled From Washington Shelves

Image via Mirth Provisions

What with Washington’s recent legalization of marijuana, there’s been a rush for new pot-infused foods; everything is shiny and new, and stores are eager to promote interesting new products. However, for one Washington retailer, a new marijuana soda came on the scene with a little more violence than expected when the bottles began literally exploding off the shelves.

According to KOMO News, Top Shelf Cannabis, located in Bellingham, Wash., took delivery of 330 bottles of a new pot-infused pomegranate soda from Mirth Provisions of Longview on September 28, selling 10 bottles on the first day they were available. Unfortunately, the store’s remaining stock was discovered in pieces on the floor the next morning after a night of exploding.

The devastation didn’t end there, however, as the bottles continued to unpredictably burst throughout the day. Store manager Zach Henifin told KOMO that it sounded like a shotgun going off.

The still intact bottles of soda were placed in a steel box outside the store, where they continued to self-destruct for 10 more days. No one at the store was injured.

Adam Stites, founder of Mirth Provisions, told KOMO that two other stores had also reported spontaneously shattering bottles, and that he would be offering all the stores a refund on the soda, which apparently exploded due to a higher-than-normal yeast concentration in this batch.

Sometimes when you’re creating new products in [a] new marketplace, there’s a little bit of a learning curve and that’s what we’ve experienced,” said Stites.

However, Top Shelf is still stuck with the rest of the exploding bottles, since stores are apparently required to “quarantine” marijuana products for 72 hours so state Liquor Control Board officers can inspect them, according to Consumerist. This is something of an inconvenience, as exploding soda waits for no man, and will likely continue to explode at random times.