Third Man Records presses vinyl album with real marijuana leaves

Since the first state, Colorado, legalized recreational marijuana, celebrities and musicians have used their image to market marijuana products.

Now Jack White's Third Man Records is using marijuana to market an artist's product. On Aug. 26, the boutique record label and shop in Detroit will release the record "Dopesmoker" from San Jose stoner metal band Sleep with marijuana leaves pressed into the limited run vinyl record sourced by cultivator Doghouse Farms in Detroit.

Due to federal and state regulations, the "Weedian High-Fi" version of the record will be available exclusively at Third Man's Detroit storefront, along with preorders for the standard black vinyl recording, the label announced on its social media earlier this week. It's federally illegal to ship any marijuana products using the mail system or across state lines.

"Dopesmoker" will also return to streaming platforms on that day after being removed in February.

The album was recorded in 1996 and later released in 1999 after the band's breakup. They've since reformed and released a comeback album, The Sciences, in 2018 on Third Man Records.

Third Man Records declined to discuss how many pressings it will release but the album will retail for $150.

In April, Doghouse was awarded the first recreational marijuana grower license in the city of Detroit. The company spent roughly $4 million to open its Detroit facility in hopes of the city approving marijuana operations soon after it became legal in the state in 2019. Instead, Doghouse has operated as a medical operation for 15 months, waiting for City Council to approve rules for recreational marijuana businesses in its jurisdiction — which it did in March after nearly 2 1/2 years since recreational marijuana operators first opened in the state.

Doghouse's 25,000-square-foot Detroit facility now mostly supports the state's adult-use market, which accounted for 90 percent of the state's $210 million in total marijuana sales in July, according to state data. Doghouse now holds two Class C adult-use recreational grow licenses, which allows an operation to grow a total of 4,000 plants at one time, and three Class C medical marijuana licenses, which allows for the growing of 4,500 plants for use in the medical market.

The Doghouse brand was founded in Oregon in 2005 and has since expanded to Washington state and Michigan. It was also recently awarded one of 22 medical grow operation licenses in Florida.