Bud & Mary’s to sell cannabis vapes in Missouri

Bud & Mary’s, a Des Moines-based cannabis manufacturer, will start selling its Batch brand vape products in Missouri later this year.

“This initiative reflects Bud & Mary’s dedication to providing top-tier cannabis products to a broader audience while continuing to honor and serve its established customer base in Iowa,” the company announced Thursday.

Bud & Mary’s, Iowa’s first licensed medical marijuana manufacturer, changed its name from MedPharm Iowa in 2022 to reflect a shift in the company’s focus from just medical marijuana allowed in Iowa to recreational pot allowed elsewhere.

That year, the company also started a $10 million expansion of its production site in Des Moines, increased operations in Colorado and moved into Michigan for cultivation, production and sales.

Now Bud & Mary’s is expanding to Missouri, which legalized recreational pot use in 2022 and allowed its first licensed sales last year. Sales in Missouri will focus on Batch-brand vaporizers, which involve heating a liquid or oil that becomes vapor the user inhales.

Iowa’s medical marijuana program, started in 2014, allows people with certified medical conditions who have a registration card to buy products at a handful of licensed dispensaries.

When Iowa expanded the medical marijuana program in 2020, the state replaced a 3 percent cap on tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, with a cap of 4.5 grams per patient every 90 days. This change made it legal for companies like Bud & Mary’s to sell 85 percent THC vapes, the company has said.

Bud & Mary’s has two Iowa dispensaries, in Windsor Heights and Sioux City. Iowa Cannabis Co. has three dispensaries, in Iowa City, Waterloo and Council Bluffs.

Iowa also allows consumable hemp, which has grown in popularity with drinks and gummies that had little regulation until this year.

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