Say Cheese: Illegal Pete's and O.Pen Launch "Queso" THC Vape Cartridge

Cannabis con queso is coming to Denver dispensaries this month, thanks to a collaboration between Illegal Pete's and  O.pen, a Colorado CBD and THC vaporizer brand.

Dubbed the Illegal Pete’s Queso Cannabis Vape, O.pen's new THC vape cartridge is filled with a cannabis-extracted blend of cheesy terpenes, the aromatic compounds in cannabis responsible for a strain's flavor, from a classic variety, U.K. Cheese. The new product will debut in select Colorado dispensaries on September 20, the same day as National Queso Day, and be sold through October 31. Customers can expect a funky, cheese-forward hit from the distillate vape product, according O.Pen.

The two parties connected in hopes of creating an official Illegal Pete's edible for dispensaries, but founder Pete Turner couldn't find a formulation that he liked in time. As Turner and O.Pen's parent company, Slang Worldwide, continue working on potential edibles, a queso-style vape sounded like the next best choice.

"We still have some science to figure out with the edibles, but we thought that maybe a way to get there would be a vape," Turner says. "I've known of O.Pen for ten years, so it was cool to have an opportunity to work with them. They're an old-school Denver brand."

If anyone knows about an older Denver, it's Turner. The Littleton native opened the first Illegal Pete's in Boulder in 1995, with his original Denver outpost opening in 2001. He now has ten Colorado stores (as well as a couple in Arizona) with two more on the way in Colorado Springs and Wheat Ridge.

Illegal Pete's has shared an unofficial connection with cannabis users and brands since the state legalized recreational marijuana in late 2012, according to Turner. Inside several Illegal Pete's restaurants, you're likely to see an array of stickers representing Colorado cannabis brands on the counters or railings, and Turner hasn't exactly turned away cannabis users from employment.

"It's been fun to be in Colorado, where it all kicked off, and see this industry evolve. I thought at some point we'd probably be doing something like this, and I think this is a very fun opportunity," he explains.

Turner was introduced to Slang and O.Pen by mutual friend Ricardo Baca, a cannabis publicist and former marijuana editor for the Denver Post. Before long, O.Pen was pitching him on different ways to get ready for National Queso Day.

Slang CEO John Moynan calls it a "bucket-list partnership" to work with a "very Colorado-centric brand" like Illegal Pete's. "They have been tangential to our industry for a long time, and there has always been a lot of overlap in the types of things we sponsor, our consumer bases and brand identification," Moynan says. "It was cool to be able to get their feedback on strain profiles and what they wanted out of it, and how we should lean into National Queso Day."

Customers who purchase an Illegal Pete's Queso Vape and take proof of purchase to any of the ten Colorado restaurants will receive a free order of chips and queso. Moynan, a self-proclaimed burrito bowl fan, might drizzle some melted cheese over his steak. But for Turner, the collaboration is about more than queso, cannabis or food orders.

"We're three years out of COVID, but it was a dark couple years. Coming out of it, I challenged myself and my team to have more fun. Being creative meant trying to keep people from dying. We employed 400 people and saw the public every day, so it required a totally different kind of creativity," he recalls. "I'm so happy to be motivated to flex that creative muscle in a fun way again."

Moynan, too, was seeking new, creative products. And as Slang and Illegal Pete's work toward a potential edibles collaboration, he's open to new partnerships, too.

"We're all ears. If Chik-Fil-A wants to come and work together on something with their Sweet & Spicy Sriracha, we'd be open to it," he says with a grin.