Drizly Wants To Bring You Some Weed, Man

Drizly, the app that connects drinkers with retailers who deliver alcohol, wants to bring you your legal weed, should you be so inclined. We missed this report from the Boston Business Journal the first time around—it published about two weeks ago—but luckily, The Spirits Business pointed us in the right direction. This news didn't come from a press release, however—it was revealed in a lawsuit, because Drizly is suing its former CEO for violation of non-compete and non-disclosure agreements. That CEO has since founded a cannabis e-commerce company, and even asked Drizly to invest.

There's some family drama involved, too—read the BBJ story for the full cousin vs. cousin spectacle—but the real news here is that another delivery company wants to connect recreational marijuana users with some good shit. Drizly, which was founded in 2012 and secured $13 million in Series A funding four years ago., is currently up and running in over 95 North American cities. Representatives for the company have reportedly contacted "potential commercial retail partners in the space"—meaning the people who'd sell you the weed—and begun conversations with regulatory bodies in the states in which they'd be able to get you legally connected with a sweet smoke hookup. Per BBJ, plans began in 2017, and the launch is expected to take place by the end of this year.

Nick Rellas, the ousted cousin, was still with the company at that time. Much of the lawsuit is redacted, as Drizly wanted to keep the unannounced plans, well, unannounced. The company requested that the lawsuit remain entirely removed from the public, but a judge ruled against that, hence the redactions. Still, it seems like Rellas' new weed business—which, again, he asked Drizly to invest in—is the source of the conflict, since the company claims he was involved in the decision to start ferrying weed to those in need of a spark.

Drizly did not respond to BBJ's request for comment.

Drizly isn't the first company to have this idea. I write this from California, where entering the terms "weed delivery" in my search bar brought up a whole bunch of shit, including both WeedMaps.com and Eaze, the latter of which is cited in the Boston Business Journal report. And there's always the practice of having one's weed guy bring the weed to you, which is not uncommon, so I'm told. But a fast-growing company with this much reach entering the arena is news, all the same, and it's understandable the company would want to announce such an effort on its own terms and in its own time.

But sometimes, you've just gotta sue your cousin, you know?