In an effort to squelch rumors, in a statement to the website Marijuana Moment, Coca-Cola vehemently denied any plans to join the CBD market.
The denials came after a man, who goes by the name Gabor the Blind Guy on YouTube, claimed to have insider knowledge from his father that the soft drink giant was planning to partner with Aurora, a Canadian cannabis company.
Bloomberg reported last year that the beverage company was actively monitoring the cannabis industry. Still, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey has repeatedly said that the company is not planning to enter the cannabis market. In a statement to CNBC last year, Quincey said, “We want to sell drinks that people can drink each day. So it’s not like you have something once. You have one a day. And if you can’t cross [off] those three things of legal, safe and consumable, it’s not an ingredient that’s going to work for us.”
Gabor posted a video on YouTube and explained that his father, an engineer for a food company that “produces bottling and capping machines” for the pharmaceutical and food business, was approached by Coca-Cola to design a machine that installs a childproof cap on soda cans. According to Gabor, his father then gave him a prototype of the childproofed can to test if a blind person could open it.
“Obviously, they don’t want little kids popping open those cans and drinking them…so my dad was tasked with designing a cap that will prevent little kids from opening these cans of CBD Coca-Cola,” he said. His commentary also mentioned a partnership with Aurora.
Gabor deleted his YouTube and social media accounts, and both Aurora and Coca-Cola have both declined to comment on the topic. Coca-Cola released a statement last year that the company has “no interest in marijuana or cannabis.” Likewise, Aurora said in a statement that it had “no agreement, understanding or arrangement with respect to any partnership with a beverage company.”