Last week I posted my opinion that I thought it was unlikely that 2014 has the potential to be the year of the marjiuana franchise. I continue, however, to see more and more franchisors looking for creative ways to incorporate marijuana into their systems in the almost two dozen states that permit the sale of marijuana for either medical or recreational use.
Unique Pizza and Subs is just one of those franchise systems. The Pennsylvania based pizza franchise recently announced that it is in the process of developing a new “cannabis infused” signature pizza sauce.
There is no marijuana sauce yet on the menu but if the “marijuana infusion chefs” retained by the franchise system have any luck it won’t be long. The press release states that Unique Pizza and Subs will work with local manufacturers to produce the product in compliance with all applicable state laws if and when it is developed. There is no news yet on whether the pizza system intends to license the products to franchisees in states where medical or recreational use of marijuana edible products is legal. Currently Unique Pizza and Sub has locations in Pennsylvania and Michigan and, of those two, only Michigan allows legal marijuana possession and then only for medical purposes. There is no doubt that it will be interesting to see how Unique Pizza and Subs addresses the new and unusual franchise disclosure and relationship issues should it decide to move forward with licensing the product to its franchisees.