Jimmy Buffett is getting into the marijuana business. The singer-songwriter is licensing “Coral Reefer” (also the name of his band) to the medical marijuana company Surterra. The Wallstreet Journal announced the news earlier this week.
Surterra plans on making Buffett-branded vape pens, edibles, lotions, and gel caps. The singer will earn royalties from these products but will not have a stake in the venture. Buffett chose Surterra because it currently focuses on medical, not recreational, marijuana. It legally operates in Florida and Texas.
Surterra, whose CEO is William “Beau” Wrigley, Jr., plans on expanding its cultivation in Florida and researching the effects of cannabis on pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Over the last few years, Surterra has raised over $100 million. Marijuana businesses often seek wealthy people and their investment firms to finance their ventures because of restrictions made on large institutional investors, according to the Journal.
Surterra revealed in August that it plans on marketing recreational cannabis in the near future.
Meanwhile, Buffett, 71, made headlines as Hurricane Florence made its way towards the North Carolina coast. He decided to take advantage of the hurricane swell by going surfing despite mandatory evacuation orders.
“I ain’t afraid of dying I got no need to explain. I feel like going surfing in this hurricane,” he explained in an Instagram photo of himself posing alongside his surfboard.
Buffett’s photo was stamped with the words “That hurricane swell” and included the lyrics of from his song “Surfing in a Hurricane.” Some gave Buffett a hard time for making light of the impending storm.
One fan defended him on Instagram, commenting, “Heard on the radio that people on here were getting onto him about the surfing in a hurricane joke. Chill tf out PLEASE. We love Jimmy and he didn’t mean any harm from it.”
Buffett later amended his post by adding, “On a serious note– respect mother nature, please be safe and listen to your local authorities.”
