Carlos Santana launches cannabis brand with Santa Rosa's Left Coast Ventures

Grammy-winning guitarist Carlos Santana is partnering with Santa Rosa cannabis company Left Coast Ventures to sell a collection of smokable joints, medicinal topicals and other products made from marijuana and hemp plants beginning later this year.

The venture is the latest celebrity collaboration for Left Coast Ventures, a cannabis operation founded by private equity fund Privateer Holdings, which has worked with Grateful Dead drummer and Sonoma County local Mickey Hart, as well as the estate of reggae legend Bob Marley. The company and its subsidiaries grow cannabis in Half Moon Bay and have distribution and manufacturing operations in Santa Rosa.

The company and Santana announced the partnership Wednesday and said the products would “honor Santana's heritage while incorporating his divine philosophies by identifying strains and products that promote the spiritual consciousness and wellness effects of cannabis.”

Cannabis consumers can expect to find Santana-branded flower and pre-rolled joints on dispensary shelves sometime this summer. In the fall, the company will release a collection of topical products with formulations inspired by Santana's own family and using nonpsychoactive cannabidiol, or CBD, made from hemp plants.