CBD and Wellness: Let’s Get to the Truth Panel Conversation
Hear from these incredible female founders as they talk about CBD and Wellness: Let’s get to the Truth panel conversation with esteemed thought leaders in the cannabis space including:
Rachael Rapinoe, Co-Founder of Mendi, Jenna Owens, Founder of Fitish, Pelin Thorogood, Co-Founder & President of Wholistic Research and Education Foundation and Chief Health and Research Contributor for Svn Space and Leah Kirpalani, Founder of Shop Good for moderating and hosting this informative panel.
What these female founders in the cannabis industry all have in common:
- They are thought leaders in this space.
- They are educators.
- They have a greater purpose to help others.
- They are about transparency.
- They care about the community.
- They are truth seekers.
- They are game changers.
This fast paced industry continues to grow as they answer the many questions consumers have and talk about the exciting revelations with regards to the future of CBD:
- what is CBD and the differences between its intoxicating cousin?
- why it works (in some and not others)?
- what to look for in a CBD product - in a sea of CBD companies popping up daily, in an industry that is unregulated and filled with some bad players.
- what are some of the challenges in this industry and in particular the FDA’s lack of regulation?
- what are some exciting products coming to market and how do they work?
- where we are with research, clinical studies, what we know today and what we need to uncover?
- what the future holds – For example, CBD has been approved to use at this summer's upcoming Olympics. Rachael Rapinoe, Co-Founder of Mendi (along with partner Kendra Freeman and her sister/Ambassador, Megan Rapinoe, discuss this exciting breakthrough and lifting the ban on CBD for professional athletes).
Here are just some of the highlights:
(Shop Good) “We consistently look for solution-oriented skincare and wellness products that can effortlessly be integrated into our lives with large impact and that’s why I’ve been so incredibly inspired to include Hemp and CBD on our wellness shelves.”
(Education) “In the eyes of the consumer, I know from firsthand there is still a lot of misinformation out there and confusion and education needed to really deliver and communicate the vast benefits of this incredible plant.”
(Opioids) “OMG! this is insane, that I was more inclined to use opiates because it felt trusted because the doctors are prescribing it to you.”
(Rosacea) “I started testing it on myself, my own rosacea and I was shocked at how well it worked because I was a tomato half the time.”
(CBD) “Is like a cheerleader for your body, right? So, when you take it, it’s finding that source of inflammation… and it’s a good substitute for an opioid or Advil.”
(Anxiety) “CBD interacts and activates our “happy hormone” and if we don’t have enough of it, we will feel lower.”
(Endocannabinoid System) “I’m someone who has my master’s in health and exercise, not one time in my 7 years of schooling did anyone ever tell me about the endocannabinoid system. And even in Med school. This should be taught in the first class, in science 101 as we have the most receptors in the endocannabinoid system than any other part of the body and we’re not taught about it.”
(Why does CBD work for some people in one way and for somebody else in a different way?) “A. It’s not a one-size-fits-all… Dosage is really important, and consumers have to do a little bit of their own work… B. Trusted brands - unfortunately, there are a lot of bad eggs in this space… Find your trusted brand and know what your dosage is.”
(Dosing) “Start low but know that Epidiolex (only approved CBD product from the FDA) for epileptic kids that the FDA has even approved higher doses, go find your own right place knowing we’re all different.”
(Dosing guide) “I check in with myself twenty minutes to an hour and notice how’s my pain, how’s my stress level, just paying attention and practicing that intuition really helps guide you because we are all bio-individuals and we are all going to react and have different thresholds and find different benefits and different styles of products.”
(Consumer Interest) “The number one question of course am I going to fail a drug test? There’s not really a test for CBD. They test for THC.”
”When you have whole plant hemp based CBD you will have trace amounts of THC so if you do a very high dosage of your whole plant CBD you might have trace amounts of THC in your system not to make you high but enough to be able to possibly pop up in a drug test.”
(What to look for in a product) “Before you buy the product, just make sure you know how many milligrams are in that gummy. Low and slow but there is kind of like a base line amount just in order for you to feel it… “
(What to look for in a product) “Absolutely a COA, Certificate of Analysis that’s a very important thing to look at… The Clean label project: a lot of the random testing that they did showed 50% plus CBD products are not what they seem. They may have less or perhaps no CBD in them which would maybe indicate why they have no effect…”
(Why a Certificate of Analysis or COA is important) “Most critically to me they may have pesticides and heavy metals in them. Hemp is a BioAggregate which is wonderful if you’re trying to clean the soil not so good if you’re trying to make medicine out of the same plant.”
(Shop Good on Svn Space) “They’ve been such a partner in vetting credible products and makers it’s where we will access most of our connections because of the work that they have done so whether you find them on Instagram or online the products that they have curated and have championed really really stand for credible, sustainable and high quality ingredients.”
(Industry challenges) “I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life. You can’t get a credit line, you can’t get a credit card, it took us over 3 months just to get a bank account… so the financial restrictions alone in this industry make it very cumbersome to say the least but also it’s really dangerous there’s a lot of people that deal with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars at a time and it’s all cash!”
(NO FDA regulation) “they say (FDA) the only legal way to write this is this way but that’s not what is in my product. I am using phytocannabinoid rich hemp oil, yet they want to call it cannabis sativa seed oil, so we’ve had labeling issues because of that. Very frustrating I found that even who I think are experts, are not experts.”
(NO FDA regulation) “I call it from the research side, the largest uncontrolled human experiment that we’ve ever encountered. The FDA is saying, you can’t use these products they’re not legal and tens of millions of Americans are using it all the time?”
(NO FDA regulation) “We’re saying you don’t have enough data, we don’t have enough research yet the government is not funding it. And we want to fund it we’re putting money in it and they’re making it practically impossible for us to get FDA APPROVED products for our research projects that we are privately funding so it is NOT easy.”
(NO FDA regulation) “Instead all of these problems are creating a huge black market for these products. A. Unsafe products B. Untaxed products. It is so illogical I don’t even really know where to start whether it’s the banking problem, lack of product availability, lack of product testing or these standards that we all desperately need. So that when we’re talking about something, everybody knows we’re talking about the same thing.”
(NO FDA regulation) “Talk about just how backwards this industry this is — we’re working with athletes and we’re trying to get to into these front offices and in these leagues and as we all know the CBD ban has been in the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA for years and what a lot of players and what the public doesn’t know, these leagues have CBD bans but like you just heard you can’t actually test for CBD but they won’t lift the ban. It’s just absolutely totally backwards and we’re dealing with people for some reason who you know just want to continue to restrict the plant for no good reason.”
(Research) “With the University of Utah were looking at the personalized brain effects of cannabinoids and we’re looking at a double blind, placebo controlled crossover study where every healthy adult is going to be going through CBD isolate, THC isolate as long as whole plant and placebo to see how our brands get impacted differently for stress, for pain, for anxiety for a lot of different elements…”
(Olympics) “The first Olympics ever where CBD is now allowed. Their athletes are allowed to use CBD, there is still some nuances around lifting the CBD ban but technically WADA has lifted the CBD ban so any athletes in competition under WADA’s policies can use CBD and USADA follow suit with those bans.”
(Innovation) “I’m excited about CBD, CBG or just a couple of the things we’re learning about when there are hundreds and so I’m excited to start exploring some of those.”
(New Insomnia study with CBD in March) “Insomnia affects nearly 20% of Americans… and it is not just oh I didn’t get much sleep last night, it can affect you in so many ways, it can really create disease conditions so it’s really important you get good sleep. And things like Ambien don’t make you get good sleep; they make you feel like you got sleep but you don’t get the benefits of sleep.”
“The cannabis space is very new and we’re embarking on it at a very exciting time and consuming (products) as a socially aware customer is really important. This industry unfortunately, it’s been flooded with a lot of sharks. A lot of people with money, people who have money in this word tend to be one person which is white and male. And there’s nothing wrong with white males but as a society it’s important for us all to take an active role in preserving this industry so it doesn’t get gobbled up like a lot of other industries and pushing people of color out, pushing women out, pushing LGBTQ representative outs, so it’s important as a consumer to also be aware of that. We have an opportunity to build this industry from the ground up and make sure that in 50-100 years from now it’s a very inclusive industry and well represented. “
“Word of mouth, right? If everyone stays scared it doesn’t spread the word then it’s not going to get out there we’re not going to have the support but if everyone continues to say ‘do you see how great this works or this worked really great for me’, I think that is going to help lead the charge because we have the power there.”
“While this is a new industry, this is not a new plant… people have been using cannabis for thousands of years for medicinal purposes. There is a lot of data.”
“It’s time for us to now use modern medicine to demystify why it works and actually then own it and take that truth and take that data out there so we can have good solid products that can help all of us and make this an inclusive industry that can benefit all of us both the manufacturers as well as the consumers.”
Learn about these incredible brands and special thanks to these incredible women for leading the way, for the audience that came out, Shop Good for hosting and One Paseo for holding our 3rd Hempanna.