She was somewhere around Aspen when Hunter S. Thompson’s drugs began to take hold — as a great business idea.
Anita Thompson, the widow of the late “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” author, plans to launch a brand of recreational marijuana using weed from her husband’s personal stash. Thompson told the Aspen Times of Colorado that she had saved six strains smoked by her spouse after he died in 2005. She is now working with a cannabis company to grow those strains and sell them under the brand “Gonzo,” a nod to the experimental style of journalism pioneered by Hunter Thompson in the 1970s.
“I have found a legal method to extract the DNA from Hunter’s personal marijuana and hashish that I saved for 12-15 years,” Anita Thompson wrote on Facebook. “I am in the process of making the strains available to those who would like to enjoy the authentic Gonzo strains in legal states.”
Thompson’s foray into the marijuana business is part of a wider effort to cement her husband’s legacy as a literary legend and counterculture icon, the Aspen Times reported. She recently assumed property ownership of Owl Ranch, Hunter’s 42-acre compound near Woody Creek, Colorado, and plans to turn it into a writer’s retreat and private museum.
“I own the house, the property, the [Gonzo] logo and Hunter’s likeness,” she told the Times. “And now I can protect it, as I always have, but now I can do it with full ownership.”
While Hunter Thompson rarely met an illicit drug he didn’t love, cannabis ranked among his all-time favorites. “I have always loved marijuana,” he famously said. “It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. And I still think of it as a basic staple of life, along with beer and ice and grapefruits — and millions of Americans agree with me.”
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