Forbes Covered The Coke Story As well as many other news outlets. There was also YouTube channels that provided context and some of the rumors. These channels also covered someone claiming to be working for coke on the new packaging (child proof lids) for the drinks.
Both Coke and Pepsi have been working on new product offerings to get away from sugar based drinks. Coke ventured into alcohol drinks with Molson Coors while Pepsi rolled out a cannabis / hemp drink in Germany.
The odds of both going into cannabis drinks is extremely high as one would never allow the other to get dominance over (what could be) a major new market / source of cash flow.
Once the stories broke Coke did make some statements on the matter which essentially said they were exploring it but the timing wasn't right. Back in 2018 the speculation on the US legalizing right after Canada was high however it didn't gain traction.
Currently the US is preparing to relax cannabis regulations by dropping cannabis from a schedule 1 substance to a schedule 3. This may be enough to give major US CPG companies the confidence enough to formally start launching cannabis related products. It may be that they do product launches and testing in Canada or other countries at first..
For the drink market (and potential deal with Coke) I cannot find a company that has more facilities, more patents, more know how etc than Tilray Brands considering their ownership of Truss Beverages, Riff and the 8 breweries they picked up.
One item that may be overlooked here is that Tilray Brands has these facilities throughout the US which could (if needed) be switched over to producing Cannabis infused drinks if the need should arise.
If someone can propose another / more likely partner for Coke Cannabis Drinks than Tilray Brands then please let me know.
Jmho