Jones Soda is offloading its Mary Jones marijuana beverage brand to privately held cannabis business MJ Reg Disrupters LLC as the drink maker “streamlines operations” and “focuses on core soda offerings.”
While Jones Soda will maintain ownership and control of its Mary Jones intoxicating hemp products, the beverage brand is offloading its recreational marijuana-positioned offerings to MJ Reg.
Terms of the deal deliver $3 million to Jones Soda, consisting of $489,399 in cash and the other roughly $2.5 million paid over the next three years as part of a promissory note. The transaction enters Jones Soda and MJ Reg into a 10-year exclusive and non-transferable trademark licensing agreement over the Mary Jones brand, calculated to return $2.175 million over the course of the term.
Jones Soda announced its intention to enter cannabis four years ago after selling a minority stake to cannabis industry investment firm SOL Global. The Mary Jones portfolio contains low-dose, hemp-derived delta-9 THC products in six drink varieties, shooters and gummies, available in retail and DTC. The brand also offers higher dosage products for the dispensary channel with products between 20mg to 100mg drinks in formats like drinks, fizzy tabs, shooters and syrups, all derived from marijuana.
“We are proud of the innovation behind the Mary Jones brand, but I believe this divestiture enables us to sharpen our strategic priorities and accelerate investment in our core soda, functional beverage, and adult beverage categories,” said Jones Soda CEO Scott Harvey in a statement.
The move comes after a year of turmoil at the Seattle-based beverage business, marked by the abrupt departures of former CEO David Knight in October and former director of finance and interim CFO Joe Culp about a week later. Harvey took over the chief executive role in February as the brand focused on boosting its footprint in the convenience channel.
Despite the high demand for THC drinks, the route to market has been a patchwork amid a changing regulatory environment and a split between dispensary-positioned high dose products and hemp-derived offerings available DTC and in beverage-alcohol retailers.
“We see the strongest long-term growth and profitability,” Harvey said in a statement, lies in soft drink categories like modern soda and emerging adult beverages (which includes both beverage-alcohol options and intoxicating hemp drinks).
Known for its innovative approach to the craft soda category, Jones has launched into next-gen CSDs with Jones Zero Cola, prebiotic Pop Jones and “Latin-inspired” Fiesta Jones. In March 2024, the brand unveiled its Spiked Jones Hard Craft Soda, which was initially paired with the Mary Jones brand in the company’s adult segment.
As recently as May’s Q1 2025 earnings report, Harvey had announced that the hemp-derived Delta-9 business was showing “strong growth,” delivering over $900,000 in revenue in the quarter. Company leadership said they were “excited about the future” and “reinforces our confidence in [the segment’s] long-term potential.
The company was preparing to launch zero-sugar Mary Jones options during Q2.
During the Q1 press release, Jones Soda announced it was developing a “strategic plan” to increase focus on the Mary Jones line, which included a “review of the strategic alternatives for its cannabis THC business.”
This story has been corrected to note that Jones Soda Co. will maintain ownership of the hemp-derived THC drinks on the Mary Jones line.