Although Mary Jane unabashedly plays off of marijuana in its name, it does not actually contain any ingredients from the plant, says Matt Moody, a Denver nutritional
supplement developer who created the beverage ($2.49 for a 12-ounce bottle). Its formula is rooted in kava, which has long been a popular recreational drug through much of the Pacific. Moody admits
that the root itself tastes "awful," but he blends it with sugar cane to obtain what one fan compares to "sweet tea meets cola."
The calming effect is probably real, says Michael Pollastri, a pharmaceuticals chemist at Boston University. "If there were not therapeutic effects, it would not be a 1,000-year-old folk medicine," he posits.
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