Even as food and beverage brands stake their claims to a piece of the emerging cannabis CPG market, their individual success may well be determined by their collective ability to organize and support each other.
At the first-ever Cannabis Forum for Food & Beverage, presented by BevNET and NOSH, on Dec. 1 in Santa Monica, Calif., a panel of four speakers — Adam Miron, co-founder and chief brand officer of HEXO; Hesaam Moallem, president and CEO of Charlotte’s Web; Errol Schweizer, co-founder and partner in mood33; and Evan Eneman, founder of Sands Lane Capital — came together to examine how cannabis is developing into a cooperative industry even at an early stage. Individually and as a group, they emphasized the need for greater education — aimed at both consumers and the government agencies charged with regulating production and sales — around cannabis and specifically the non-psychoactive benefits of CBD.
Watch the full clip above, in which Schweizer, calling the level of scrutiny on hemp-derived CBD “irrational,” advocated for a loosening of rules to allow universities and other research institutions to more closely collaborate with cannabis companies on testing and R&D. Meanwhile, Moallem voiced his optimism that the process of de-stigmatizing marijuana to mainstream consumers was progressing at a steady rate.