On the other hand, taking the Adam Curry view ‘o life, this could all be a covert government sponsored attempt to sedate the population.

In Los Angeles, where medical marijuana dispensaries outnumber Starbucks and McDonald’s restaurants combined, a mood-altering beverage with a cannabis-oriented marketing campaign is gaining traction. Southern California has become the bestselling market for Mary Jane’s Relaxing Soda, a sugary drink laced with kava, a South Pacific root purported to have sedative properties.

Matt Moody, a Denver nutritional supplement developer who created the beverage, said the name is an unabashed reference to weed, though the relaxant compounds in kava are chemically unrelated to those in marijuana.

Along with drinks like Slow Cow and Ex Chill, Mary Jane’s is part of a new group of so-called slow-down or anti-energy drinks, which are expected to be among the top food trends of 2010, according to advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

They rely on folk-medicine sedatives, including kava, camomile and valerian, to provide an alternative to caffeine-laced and jitter-inducing energy drinks such as Red Bull.
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These “relaxation” drinks have become popular fodder for food bloggers, with some calling Mary Jane’s “weed in a bottle.”
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The calming effect is probably real, said Michael Pollastri, a pharmaceuticals chemist at Boston University.

“If there were not therapeutic effects, it would not be a 1,000-year-old folk medicine,” Pollastri said.