Michael Bourque had never smoked pot until a bout of anxiety in his 40s. Discouraged by the side effects of the medicines he was prescribed, Bourque became intrigued by the potential benefits of marijuana.

At that time, in 2014, marijuana for medicinal purposes had yet to go on sale in Massachusetts. So, like many people before him, Bourque hit the streets. “I found a guy that looked like ZZ Top, and the next thing you know I’m doing a deal in a parking lot,” he said.

He tried it the old-fashioned way — smoking a joint — and hated it. So the longtime product development manager tore apart commercial pot vaporizers that are available on the market to find out how they worked, convinced he could make a device as consumer-friendly as a coffee machine.

Today, Bourque is the cofounder of CannaKorp Inc., a Stoneham company making a marijuana vaporizer that has an inevitable comparison to the instant coffee machines made by Keurig, where Bourque’s business partner was a longtime executive.

The CannaKorp vaporizer is expected to debut early next year, just a few months after Massachusetts voters decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use. [Read more at The Boston Globe]