Medical marijuana: Cheeba Chews looking to sponsor local snowboarders

From the dreadlocked ski bum in Breck covering his season pass by selling grams from his garden to Texas tourists to the clandestine smoke shacks at nearly every resort in this state, marijuana has unofficially sponsored snowboarding and skiing in Colorado for some time.

And now Cheeba Chews, maker of an insanely strong ganja-infused candy, wants to officially bridge the gap by sponsoring a few lucky riders this winter.

Cheeba Chews owner James Howler credits some of the impetus behind the idea to e-mails from MMJ patients injured in skiing and snowboarding crashes telling him how the potent chocolates were helping in their recovery. Everything finally clicked, though, when he decked out his snowboard and jacket in the company logo and went riding. "People were hitting me up left and right," Howler recalls.

So he came up with the concept of sponsoring MMJ card-carrying riders to go hard in competitions and videos, proving that medical patients can live active lives and recuperate at the end of a long day with a natural substance instead of pounding a few hundred Tylenol over the course of a season.

And these candies will do the trick. From my review a few weeks back: "My first thought was that the taste isn't anything unique or spectacular, and that Cheeba Chews are basically a gooier Tootsie Roll with a light hash aftertaste. My second thought was, 'Holy shit, this is some strong stuff.' The super-potent candies were more than enough to turn me into a pain-free vegetable for an evening..."

Right now, Howler is planning to put together a snowboard-only team, but he's open to having a few shredding skiers, too. "I really want to see what kind of quality I get coming through," he says. "It would be really cool to be entering contests and stuff." And while his company's product may be unusual, Howler says that Cheeba Chews will follow the traditional sponsorship path, including outfitting the riders in Cheeba Chews gear and paying their entry fees for contests.

Although he stops short of saying that the team members will get free Chews, I doubt that will be a hard one to negotiate. Because while anti-marijuana policies and drug testing would keep Cheeba Chews team members out of the Olympics, other large competitions, including the Winter X Games and the Dew Winter Tour, have said that they don't test for marijuana.

Interested riders should send a note to [email protected] that includes their age, job, other sponsorship deals and what competitions they plan to ride in.

More from our Marijuana archive: "Medical marijuana: Three-peat of attempted dispensary burglaries baffle owner."