Privateer Holdings, Bob Marley’s Estate Enter Partnership

Bob Marley’s family will lend the reggae legend’s name and face to a company that sells marijuana strains smoked by the famous musician, and cannabis-infused topicals and accessories similar to those he used.

Seattle-based Privateer Holdings will own Marley Natural, which will have its headquarters in New York’s lower east side but will make and distribute products in areas where cannabis is legal, spokesman Zack Hutson said. The deal took 18 months to finish and was completed in late summer.

The topicals and accessories will first be distributed in North America and Europe since they’re already legal in most areas. Privateer is working with distributors in Israel and may consider options in Uruguay and the Netherlands to sell the cannabis strains, Hutson said.

The new company will begin production next year on a line of heirloom cannabis strains such as Lambs Bread, which Marley smoked until his death in 1981. It will also make topical products including lip balms, sun-block and lotions infused with cannabis and hemp and accessories such as the “bamboo bubbler” and “coconut chalice” similar to what Marley used, Hutson said.

“Bob Marley started to push for legalization more than 50 years ago,” Privateer Holdings CEO Brendan Kennedy told NBC News. “We’re going to help him finish it.”