Industry veterans press forward to bring their award winning marijuana gummies to legal markets across the U.S.
It doesn’t get more old school in California cannabis brands than Kushy Punch, whose tiny edibles dominated the Southern California medical marijuana market in the years leading up to recreational legalization. With a mission that medicine can be fun, the brand began spreading wellness one bite at a time, becoming the top selling cannabis gummy in California along the way.
The company has come a long way since its beginning, modifying its formula and its packaging to keep up with new regulations and consumers preferences to continue to stay ahead in the legal cannabis market.
Patient Favorite Edibles
Kushy Punch soared to popularity early on because they offered something to patients that many edibles couldn’t in California’s wild west medical marijuana market: consistency. While other companies were still producing untested edibles in basic kitchens, Kushy Punch was pushing the industry standards for quality and specific dosing to give patients peace of mind.
In today’s market, many edible companies are using distillate, which strips away much of the fatty acids, cannabinoids, and other plant materials found in the source cannabis plant. Since the beginning and still today, Kushy Punch has used full spectrum cannabis oil for a true entourage effect experience and a long lasting, full body high favored by patients over distillate’s overpowering head rush. 
Continued Cannabis Innovation
Some veterans of the California medical marijuana scene may remember the company’s original formulation, a taffy that was very difficult to split into doses but prized among patients for its consistent potency. Soon after its launch, the company updated its taffy consistency to a gummy, a move lauded by patients who now had an easier time cutting Kushy Punch edibles into single servings. This awareness of their customers’ needs helps them make the changes necessary to keep up with consumer trends.
In speaking of consumer trends, the company also moved to capture a share of the CBD market with their award winning line of CBD products. Kushy Punch even once dipped their toe in vape pens before deciding to focus on its successful edible business.
All this reveals a company that is obsessed with innovation to both keep ahead of the competition and to create the best cannabis edible experience for their customers as possible.
Transition to Recreational Sales
The passing of Proposition 64 introduced legal recreational marijuana to California, but it also brought with it a complex web of cannabis regulations that would soon entangle former medical marijuana businesses and newly launched recreational businesses alike.
Just as many other existing medical marijuana businesses, Kushy Punch struggled some in the changeover to the recreational market and faced licensing issues, despite their intense preparation and partly due to the ambitious plans of the state to regulate its largely unregulated cannabis industry virtually overnight. These growing pains proved to be opportunities for improvement, and the company quickly pivoted to meet state requirements.
The company took a step back, regrouped, and since March, are back in the California market with the same great gummies that made them a favorite among consumers. Kushy Punch believes that it is leading the way in California for quality and safety standards. The current management team has experience in adhering to regulations, as well as manufacturing and packaging standards like cGMP, from industries outside of cannabis, demonstrating a commitment to getting compliance right for the sake of their end users.
New Markets and New Packaging
Since shifting to a recreational market in California, the company has brought the Kushy Punch brand to Michigan, becoming the number one cannabis gummy in the state, and is gearing up to launch in another new market, Nevada, valued at over half a billion dollars in sales.
Kushy Punch is taking a bold step once again by revamping their packaging to coincide with their launch in Nevada. The company is ditching their old cardboard box for a sharp new compact tin. This discreet packaging slips easily into pockets and purses. The new packaging features patent pending technology designed to keep children’s hands from accessing the products inside, making it an exceptionally safe product for use in households with kids.
The company is also moving away from a segmented gummy that needs to be partitioned into servings. Kushy Punch will now be molded into 10 mg single serving gummies to meet state regulations in Nevada, California, and elsewhere. This solves an age old issue of how to best break your Kushy Punch into your desired amount accurately.
The company is launching its new packaging alongside its launch in the Nevada recreational market, but this new look and feel will soon be coming to California shops. What hasn’t changed is the company’s proven formulations, which underlie the quality in each gummy and are the true reason for the brand’s legion of fans.
What’s Next?
Kushy Punch plans to move into additional recreationally legal marijuana states like Arizona and Colorado in the near future and is keeping an eye on potential national legalization when it becomes a reality. The company is even exploring international opportunities to manufacture its products in new global markets.
The company is also looking to expand into new products and new brands alongside the Kushy Punch label. This will potentially happen in the next six months, giving fans of this iconic brand something to look forward to.
Although marketed under new brand names, the products will be produced by the same experienced team and feature the same Kushy Punch quality customers have come to trust.
Until then, Kushy Punch gummies can be found in dispensaries throughout California and Michigan, and soon in Nevada.
Learn more by visiting KushyPunch.com
