Buddies is an extraction-first cannabis brand that launched in Oregon in 2017 and holds licenses in Oregon, Washington, California and Nevada. It makes 100% cannabis vapes, dabs, softgels and tinctures plus the Fire & Ice topical line, and CEO Bryan Cochran runs the day-to-day across farms, manufacturing, supply chain and compliance.
Nevada came online in 2026. In September 2026, Buddies took six first-place awards and a runner-up at the California Leaf Bowl.
Built in the lab by extract lovers
Buddies says it never started as a marketing concept. Budist put it plainly in a March 2026 feature: the company "started in the lab by extract lovers." Its stated mission is access to cannabis through price and availability, and it set out in 2017 to sell 100% cannabis products with full ingredient transparency.
Tetra Labs, Shasta Lake and four state licenses
After Oregon, Buddies moved into Washington. California came in 2019, when Buddies acquired Tetra Labs, a Shasta Lake operation, and Cochran joined with it. Nevada followed in 2026. Budist places the Washington operation in Lake Stevens and the Nevada side in the Las Vegas area.
Each state carries its own license: California DCC-10003316, Oregon 060-10108279225, Washington 6033582640010001 and Nevada 84492500962215939022. The catalogs differ by state, too. Cured Resin vapes are a California item, and Live Resin Infused pre-rolls sell only in Washington.
From Costco floors to the CEO chair
Cochran spent 20 years at Costco, starting as a cart pusher and working up to general manager, with a run managing projects for warehouse openings. He joined Buddies through the 2019 Tetra Labs deal and served as chief operating officer before taking the CEO title. In a September 2026 MyCannabis interview, he said the team values transparency, product quality and consistency, and fair pricing.
Thirteen Oregon farms and 47 varieties
Oregon Leaf toured the southern Oregon operation for its November 2025 issue, reporting from White City and Gold Hill. Buddies manages 13 farms with a combined 520,000 square feet of canopy in the state. The Gold Hill garden alone holds 22,000 square feet of outdoor space, and its rows would run more than 27 miles laid end to end.
The farms keep a stable of 47 varieties, including old-school cuts like Grand Daddy Purp and Double Urkle, picked for extraction yield, resilience and clonability. Fresh-frozen material goes to hydrocarbon extraction, and dried material goes to ethanol for distillate. "We like to create the same Big Mac in every state," lab manager Jorge Fuentes told the magazine.
General manager Jake Burkman and assistant general manager Jeremy Brown run the site, and the lab adds two-stage filtration and winterization to pull fats and lipids.
Five oils, spelled out on the box
Buddies sorts its vapes into five oil families. 100% Live Resin starts from fresh-frozen whole plants, with no distillate, additives or CRC, in 1-gram 510 carts and all-in-ones. 100% Cured Resin runs indoor flower into 1-gram ceramic carts under the same no-distillate, no-CRC rule.
Premium Cannabis Oil + CDT pairs high-potency oil with strain-specific terpenes extracted in-house. Premium Sauce Blend mixes full-spectrum live resin HTE, cannabis-derived terpenes and cannabis oil. Flavor Infused uses plant-based terpenes sourced outside cannabis, in more than 20 varieties.
Dabs span cured resin crumble, cured resin terp sugar and both cured and live resin diamonds and sauce. Softgels come in live resin, RSO and premium cannabis oil builds, and Fire & Ice ships as Extra, Max and Ultra roll-ons.
Fire & Ice and a long run of cups
Buddies lists Fire & Ice as Best Topical at the High Times Cannabis Cup in 2014 and again in 2024, and the line took first place for topicals at the 2023 Oregon Grower's Cup. Sour Tangie took first in vape carts at the 2018 Dope Cup, a year after Purple Mahayana placed second. LeafLink named Buddies its Fastest Growing Cartridge Brand in California for 2020 and a top brand in Oregon for 2021.
The wins kept coming. Purple Punch Bomb won concentrates at the 2021 Haze Secret Cup, Berry Jane took second in sativa vapes at the 2021 High Times Cannabis Cup, and Melon Gum won flavored distillate at the 2024 North West Leaf Bowl.
September 2026 brought seven awards at once. At the California Leaf Bowl, run by Leaf Magazines, Buddies won Best General Hydrocarbon Cart with Super Boof 100% Cured Resin, Best Distillate AIO Vape with Pink Lemonade Flavor Infused and Best Topical with the Fire & Ice MAX 3oz roll-on. Three more first-place finishes and a runner-up for Ghost OG RSO softgels filled out the count.
Where Buddies sells in 2026
Buddies sells through licensed dispensaries in all four states, and its store locator routes buyers to Weedmaps and I Heart Jane listings. Oregon Leaf counted more than 200 distinct items across its categories in 2025. Fire & Ice MAX also won Best Topical at the 2026 Oregon Leaf Bowl, and in September 2026 Cochran told MyCannabis that Buddies had more states on its 2027 map.
For adults 21 and over.