How Cheech & Chong Turned Their Legacy Into A $100 Million Cannabis Empire

Forbes

Weed has always paid off for the godfathers of stoner comedy. Now they’ve built a company that sells THC-infused edibles, drinks and of course some tasty bud, all of which brings in some serious green.  If you spend enough time with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, America’s best-known pothead entertainers, you’ll hear enough stories to realize why the duo became comedy legends.  These days, Cheech and Chong are playing by the rules, as long as you ignore the federal laws regarding marijuana. In 2020, the duo, along with their business partners Brandon Harshbarger, Jonathan Black, and Tom Cole, launched two companies, California-based Cheech and Chong Cannabis Co., which licenses its brand, genetics, formulas and retail designs to marijuana companies, and Cheech and Chong’s Global Holding Company, a Nevada-based endeavor that sells hemp-derived products ranging from gummies to flower to THC-infused drinks. (The hemp company also licenses the Cheech and Chong brand to make accessories and apparel.)  And there’s nothing to joke about when it comes to their business, of which they own about 8% each. In 2025, the companies’ combined revenue will hit nearly $100 million from both marijuana and hemp, up from about $50 million last year. The companies, which outsource manufacturing to third parties, are worth roughly $150 million.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2025/08/24/why-cheech-and-chongs-100-million-cannabis-empire-is-no-joke/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00We were the originals.

00:02Yeah.

00:03If it wasn't for Cheech and Chong, there wouldn't be weed on the planet.

00:07Because we invented weed.

00:14See, everybody had the wrong impression.

00:16Well, we're trying to go back to it.

00:18We're trying to deport all the brown people.

00:22But I figured it out, man.

00:24You know, it's white people that are causing global warming.

00:27Really?

00:28Because of the sun hitting the white sky.

00:31Didn't you know that?

00:33Weed has always paid off for the godfathers of stoner comedy.

00:36Now, they've built a company that sells THC-infused edibles, drinks, and, of course, some tasty bud.

00:43All of which brings in some serious green.

00:46In 2025, their company's combined revenue will hit nearly $100 million for both marijuana and hemp, up from about $50 million last year.

00:55Preservation Hall, huh?

00:58Wow.

00:59That's what it is.

01:00That's what it is.

01:01I'm honored.

01:02The title's bigger than the building.

01:04Yeah, I know.

01:07One of their newest product lines is called High and Dry, a line of THC-infused beverages.

01:12Their goal?

01:13To unite two industries that were, for decades, at odds.

01:16Well, they get high, and they don't have to be dry.

01:20Don't have to be, but they can be.

01:23But it's melding the two worlds, the drink world and the marijuana world, into one thing.

01:30Because we've got to get together, the marijuana industry and the drink industry, to fight our real enemy, online gambling.

01:37I bet that won't work.

01:38You probably won't, but it's worth a try.

01:41I bet you.

01:43THC-infused drinks seem to be well-timed.

01:46A recent Gallup poll found that only 54% of American adults say they drink alcohol, down from 71% in 1977, a historic low for the country.

01:56In this world, you need money.

02:00We just discovered that.

02:02And we found out through dealing weed, you know, all our lives, that a lot of money and weed.

02:11Can you imagine we're making a living selling water?

02:15America, fuck yeah.

02:18Water that helps you not only get by, but gives you an appetite.

02:23See, the great thing about high and dry, especially with me, the older you get, the less appetite you have.

02:31A lot of it is memory loss, you know, because you can't remember, am I hungry?

02:36Do I like this or not?

02:38And so, but the high and dry, I drink it, and next thing you know, man, I'm hungry.

02:44And also, it makes you creative, too.

02:47It helps the writing vibe.

02:49One of the most intelligent species on the planet discovered cannabis.

02:59And I'm talking about soccer mums.

03:02Yeah.

03:04They got intelligence and a big ass van, man, you know.

03:06Yeah.

03:07And you can't have a DUI and be a soccer mums.

03:13Then you're a soccer rider, you know.

03:16Well, there's a lot of benefits to cannabis.

03:18It depends on what you want.

03:19You want to cut down on your eating.

03:22That won't help it at all, because you still get hungry.

03:25But anything else you smoke cannabis for the relaxation, lessening of stress.

03:30You know, stress is very important, I mean, very prevalent everywhere we go, so we see it.

03:36The Chinese figured out 4,000 years ago that cannabis, weed, is a medicine.

03:43And it helped with cancer.

03:45This is 4,000 years ago, by the way.

03:47The Chinese are brilliant, brilliant people.

03:49I'm part Chinese, by the way.

03:51So he's only part brilliant.

03:52Yeah.

03:53People always laugh.

03:54They think it's my penis, but it's not.

03:56It's my brain.

03:57That's the Chinese part.

03:59As the U.S. cannabis market posted $32 billion in sales last year across 40 states, Cheech and Chong, if anybody, deserve a taste of the action.

04:08We acted as if it was legal all the time, so that, you know, there was no stress for us.

04:14I started playing guitar.

04:16I learned to hang out with the bouncers at the door, because then you'd see the pretty girls walking in, you know.

04:23Anyway.

04:24I knew there was an end to this.

04:25The bouncers, they were all bodybuilders.

04:29And so any time I'd have a cigarette, they'd take it out of the bite.

04:32Step on it.

04:34You know, and you couldn't do anything unhealthy for your body, except they would smoke pot.

04:40And so then I got into the pot.

04:43That's how we got here today.

04:45Until we came along, everybody had the wrong impression, especially of Mexicans.

04:50Because, you know, back in the day, before we started doing cannabis, a Mexican with a headband, you know, he was, oh, he was dangerous.

05:00When we come along, we killed that myth.

05:03You know, because Cheech's character, you know, in Up and Smoke, just obliterated the danger chick on her with the headband.

05:14Gone.

05:16How did this happen?

05:17We became, we became lovable.

05:21Looks like a toothpick, man.

05:24No, it's not a toothpick, man.

05:25No, hey, it is a toothpick, man.

05:28Oh, man, it's just, it's a toothpick.

05:31Who's big?

05:32And so we spent a whole, our whole lives changing everybody's attitude.

05:38Yeah.

05:39About weed and about brown people.

05:42Yeah.

05:43While Cheech and Chong still get high the old-fashioned way, at their age, they've been enjoying beverages and gummies.

05:48It's a matter of time, you know.

05:50You want to get high right now, or you want to get high even 20 minutes from now and not have any throat irritation.

05:55We don't see any Mexican weed anymore, huh?

05:59I'm looking for that.

06:00I'm looking for it, too.

06:01People say, don't do your midst.

06:03That stinky weed.

06:04I love that old stinky weed.

06:05Me, too.

06:06The seed would pop, you know, and itch in the eye or something.

06:08You've got to be careful.

06:10While celebrity cannabis brands do not typically do well, despite a few exceptions, Cheech and Chong have a unique advantage.

06:17Not only are they synonymous with weed, but they also have a massive fan base that spans generations.

06:22I've read about the pyramids.

06:26Accessible pyramids.

06:27And what they found out, that there's certain things that they, you know, they used back in the day.

06:37And the great thing about the pyramids, think about this, there were no wars during that time.

06:43Yeah.

06:44Because all the people, the armies and everything else, were busy working.

06:47And the other thing that they found was hemp rope.

06:52Yeah.

06:54So if you got hemp rope, that means you had buds.

06:58And if you got the buds, that meant...

06:59You had a lot of buds gathered around you.

07:01That meant you had people high as a mother.

07:05And, oh, by the way, you know who built the pyramids?

07:08My cousins.

07:09Yeah.

07:10Despite decades of stoner jokes, Cheech and Chong have always been much savvier than their comedic personas.

07:15While their goal is to pass the company along to their children, selling the brand is also on the table.

07:21I try to figure out why...

07:24What was the purpose of the pyramids?

07:27And, yeah, think about it. What was the purpose?

07:30Tourism.

07:32Genius.

07:33One.

07:34One.

07:36Oh, guys.

07:39One.

07:41One.

07:42Two.

07:45Three.

07:49Two.

07:50A Def.

07:51One.

07:52Two.

07:53Three.

07:54Two.

07:55One.

07:56Two.

08:01Two.

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