Bob Marley’s Son Prepares to Create Amsterdam-Style Coffee Shops

If you’re one of Bob Marley’s eight children, you can pretty much choose to do whatever you want in life. Most of them went into areas connected to what made the world know and love their father: music and ganja.

One of the sons, Rohan Marley, has pursued an endeavor with an even better outlook for those of us who also love coffee.

After a brief athletic career with the Canadian Football League and Jamaica’s national soccer team, Rohan, 45, bought 50 acres in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains and started Marley Coffee, then created House of Marley, a brand of sustainable products and a lifestyle movement.

The House of Marley Awakening

In keeping with the entire Marley clan, Rohan supports legalization and promotes the benefits of cannabis.

“It’s about awakening ourselves to a plant that has tremendous value, and so many positive things it can do,” Rohan told a Daily Beast reporter who visited Marley’s New York apartment. “My brother Damian has a beautiful song called ‘Medication’ that touches on the medicinal value of herb, and there’s plenty of testimony about people being soothed by the CBD side of herb.”

So, between the coffee (check out Rohan’s The Marley Coffee Cookbook) and the weed, can a chain of Amsterdam-style coffee shops be far off?

“Why is Amsterdam so much smarter than everybody else? How did they become the first to have coffee shops?” asked Rohan, a rhetorical question, of course, to which we all know the answer.

“I see a line of Marley coffee shops. That’s a no-brainer,” continued Rohan. “We’ve gotta do that, and have a place where you can smoke, chill out and buy the products. I’m really looking forward to doing that.”

One Love, One World

The House of Marley brand and the future coffee shops, said Rohan, seek to “create a better world and spread Bob Marley’s vision of One Love, One World.”

To that aim, House of Marley products—mostly music-related—are made from “mindfully sourced materials,” such as bamboo, FSC certified wood, recycled aluminum and plastics, etc.

“As entrepreneurs, we’re just continuing what our father started and building on the foundation, which is the music,” said Rohan.

When the laws of the land finally catch up with the people’s choice and burning desire to legalize marijuana, let’s hope Marley Coffee Shops are ready to spring into action posthaste.